Heart of the Soul
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Mai isn't a typical school girl. After a particularly bad case results in a seal being broken, she finds her life beginning on a strange spiral back to a past she would prefer to forget. But some destinies are harder to shake than others, and her ordinary life will never be the same again. Eh, normal is for the boring.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a Ghost Hunt/KHR cross where Mai is a fem Tsuna.**

* * *

Mai was choking, suffocating on the fumes from the broken jars. She could feel her vision fading, her mind going blank.

She didn't want to die. She _wouldn't_ die if she had any say about it.

There was a pulse, deep in her soul. Resonating with the desire to _live_ , even if it killed her. To get out of this place or die trying.

That desire caused a roaring sensation in her mind. Almost like a dragon struggling against unseen bonds. Hearing the awful giggling of those _children_ , something snapped.

Brown eyes shifted to amber as the roar of an inferno burst from her soul and through her body. She sent the children running, as an orange shape slammed out of the barricade and past the windows. She wouldn't know this until after, but a massive _beast_ made of orange fire flowed past the windows and caused all of them to shatter just from proximity to it. Fortunately one of the cameras _was_ aimed in the general direction of the now shattered windows, so she at least got a good look at what it was.

"Mai!"

Mai was beyond anything at the moment. The second the beast chased off the children and the door slammed open, she blacked out.

* * *

 _Naru POV..._

"What happened."

It wasn't a question. Naru was openly _pissed_ that Mai was unconscious and that the _thing_ clearly originated from the room she was in. Worse, he could clearly feel her fever spiking any time they went anywhere near the infirmary, which meant Ayako had to treat her in the base.

Even he was at a loss to explain what the hell that thing was, or where it came from. Because it _definitely_ wasn't part of the haunting they were supposed to be investigating.

"I don't know! One minute we're about to investigate one of the areas, the next there's this roaring sound from the other side of the building and the entire place shook!" said Ayako.

"It was quite startling, and it felt nothing like the spirits around us... it was almost _alive_ ," said Masako, quite shaken.

John came back with a camera that had evidently fallen over and broken...but Naru could care less about that. They immediately reviewed the footage and all of them stared.

"...Is that a _dragon_ made of _fire_?" said Monk, in disbelief.

Rushing past the windows was a creature that could only be identified as a dragon. Though it seemed closer to the Eastern variants, as opposed to their winged cousins. There were clearly defined scales, massive talons and sharp fangs. The entire thing was made up of orange flames...though it almost looked like there was something indigo near the center of it.

Whatever it was melted the windows to the point they shattered outward.

Sensing movement, Naru turned to Mai. She was blinking slowly, as if she wasn't fully awake. He pressed a hand on her forehead, and found it was still warm...but had gone down considerably since they rescued her from the room.

"Nngh... Where am I?" she groaned.

"Easy. You inhaled a lot of those fumes, so you're going to be dizzy for a while. Just rest," said Ayako firmly.

Mai blinked from her spot, before holding her head with a puzzled look on her face.

"What is it?" asked Naru.

"I don't feel that headache anymore."

"Headache?" repeated Ayako.

"Ever since I started working for SPR, I've had this constant migraine. I thought it was from trying to read the books you let me borrow... but it's gone. And it always got worse around spirits."

Naru knew Mai was at least _trying_ to fill the gaps in her knowledge about the spiritual and supernatural. She would borrow some of his reference books and attempt to translate them during work whenever they weren't being pestered by thrill seekers or idiots.

For some reason she always gained nasty migraines for her efforts though she was learning some. It was only bits and pieces, but she was definitely retaining some of it. Naru quizzed her whenever he was bored and would _gently_ (for him anyway) correct her. And she took good care of the books she borrowed, so he didn't mind.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" asked Ayako slowly.

Naru knew about Mai's migraines. They only ever showed up when she was _actively_ trying to learn for some reason and got progressively worse the more difficult the material was.

He was honestly baffled as to why that was, because Mai wasn't an idiot like some of the people he had been forced to be _nice_ to in the past. She did have a brain, but the migraines made it very hard for her to retain anything or use it outside of dangerous situations. There was also the fact she was openly clumsy, but she had learned to cope by moving in a slow and deliberate manner.

Mai rolled her eyes.

"Four," she replied annoyed.

Ayako looked relieved.

"You are going to stay right here until morning. Until then we're going to have to find a way to explain what happened to all the windows."

"...Why am I here anyway? I would have thought you'd take me to the nurse's office."

"We _would_ have, if your fever didn't spike every time we came close to it," said Naru flatly.

John had an odd look on his face.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a ghost that frequented that office?" he asked.

Dead silence.

"You don't think she was instinctively reacting to that, do you?" asked Monk.

"Well what _other_ explanation for why her fever spikes near that office, but not when we brought her here?" demanded Ayako.

Because that was the only _logical_ explanation she could think of for why Mai reacted like that when she wasn't even awake.

* * *

 _ **Mai's Dream POV...**_

 _Almost immediately upon realizing she was in a dream, she felt steel bands around her shoulders. It took her a second to realize it was the weird Naru double that always showed up on a case...and rarely outside it._

" _Are you alright?" he asked, looking openly concerned._

" _I'm fine. Exhausted and still groggy from the fumes, but fine."_

 _He looked relieved._

" _Hey Naru... what was that dragon the others saw? Masako said it didn't feel anything like the spirits in the school."_

 _Naru looked openly amused._

" _That was your power, set free from a barrier that was forcibly keeping it in check."_

" _A barrier?"_

" _Have you ever wondered why you were always so clumsy or had such bad migraines?"_

 _Mai's eyes widened._

" _How..."_

" _Someone put a seal on your powers... How, I have no idea because I didn't know that was possible. But it's the reason why we had to be at just the right frequency for us to talk, which for some reason only ever happens during a case. Now though... now I can use your soul as a beacon to find you every time," said the Naru double, looking very pleased at this fact. "With that seal broken, you should be able to use your powers properly, instead of just 'receiving' signals."_

" _What."_

" _The seal was keeping you from astral walking on your own. Once I find you, I'll show you the trick to it so you don't end up collapsing out of nowhere and freaking everyone out."_

 _Mai blinked, before she really_ looked _at the Naru double. She had always thought it weird that Naru never commented on the fact that she kept running into him in her dreams. In fact he was rather baffled as to why she kept getting such awful migraines in the first place._

 _That, and he was still hugging her rather tightly, as if worried she might wander off._

 _Now that she was properly looking at him, she noticed something even more odd._

 _He had a thick indigo/blue/yellow haze, as opposed to the odd green/red/purple haze that Naru always had._

" _You're not Naru are you?"_

 _He smiled and it made her heart do a funny little flip._

" _No, I'm his brother. Don't say anything to him just yet, because he won't be able to find me with the way he's been looking... the vision had too few details for him to find me. But I might be able to find you instead... though I have the feeling I'm not exactly going to be much for visitors once I do."_

" _So what should I call you then?"_

" _Eugene."_

 _"Yuujin? Who on earth would name their son 'friend'? From now on I'm just going to call you Yuu-chan, because that's far less embarrassing," she said flatly. "... You're not going to tell Naru are you?"_

" _About the fact you like him? If that idiot scientist hasn't picked it up by now I'd be surprised. Then again, he always was a bit thick headed when it came to his emotions. I was always the more empathetic one," said the newly named Yuu-chan cheerfully. He hugged her a little tighter. "Of course if he hasn't picked it up, I know the perfect way to get him to figure it out for himself."_

 _Mai had a bad feeling about this. Not the "I'm about to be in great danger" kind of way, but more of the "My life is about to become needlessly complicated and vexing"._

 _Pretty much the same feeling she got every time she even remotely considered admitting her feelings for Naru, right before she remembered Masako liked him as well. Though perhaps infatuation was a better way of describing it._

 _Masako clearly didn't see Naru... all she saw was a cute boy she could blackmail into dates._

 _That had never ceased to piss Mai off, but she wasn't about to interfere because she knew Naru wouldn't appreciate it._

 _Besides...right now it just felt nice being held while she felt so sick. It had been a long time since anyone stayed with her like that._

* * *

Mai woke up and felt a thousand times better...if a bit stiff. That's when she saw what was right next to her and a monumental blush was on her face. She barely registered Lin passing by with a cup of fresh tea.

Naru was leaning against the lone couch in the room, and it was very clear he had been there the entire night. Someone (likely Lin) had put a blanket over him.

Lin eyed the two and inwardly sighed.

He knew perfectly well Naru happened to like Mai, and not in a "friends" sense or in the coldly professional way he was with Ms. Hara. Honestly that foolish medium had no sense.

However the two of them were firmly in a 'holding' position because while Mai clearly liked him as well, she wasn't going to provoke Masako. And considering they occasionally needed a medium, the two were stuck.

At least until that idiot girl got it through her head that Naru had zero romantic interest in her. He was only humoring her because Madoka and his parents would never let him hear the end of it for being openly rude.

There were times like this though, that Naru actually let his guard down around her.

Hence why he said nothing, though he did take a few pictures for blackmail and sent a couple to Naru's parents.

Needless to say they were openly thrilled and demanded details.

He was almost to the computer when he realized something.

Normally, his shiki lazily drifted around him and occasionally went near Mai out of curiosity. As if they sensed something about her that was like catnip to them.

Now they looked torn between drifting much closer than normal, or avoiding her completely. As if they were afraid of something.

Seeing Naru stir, Lin smirked. He wondered when the boy would notice that Mai was hugging him from behind...or if she'd remove her arms before he was fully awake. Naru wasn't much of a morning person.

He discreetly took a picture of the scene, and was rather pleased at the wide eyed look Naru had very briefly when he registered what was going on. The Davis were going to _love_ this one.

"Well it's about time!" said Ayako loudly.

Thankfully Masako wasn't quite up yet and was still brushing her teeth. However Ayako had woken up early to check on Mai.

Mai blushed red like a tomato, and Naru just blinked. He wasn't entirely awake, though if he were he'd still be able to keep his blush off his face.

"Ayako!" hissed Mai.

"Come on, anyone with eyes could tell you like him. I'm just glad I got to see it before Masako blows up about it," said Ayako grinning.

He really shouldn't do this...but Naru gave him enough headaches and this was a harmless bit of payback.

"I have pictures," said Lin. Ayako's eyes gleamed with glee. Naru glared at him. "I'm sure his parents are going to enjoy them as well."

And unfortunately for Naru, Lin had already sent it to his computer a few moments before Ayako walked in.

"Can you keep it down? I still have a headache," said Mai.

Ayako went straight into doctor mode, though she was openly amused. She was waiting for one of them to make a move on the other for _months_ now. Hell, even John and the monk picked it up, and from the way Masako sometimes glared at Mai when Naru was being nice to her, it was pretty obvious she suspected something but didn't dare confirm it.

"I'm just saying it's about time you admitted you like him," she said grinning, checking the younger girl over.

Mai grimaced.

"Well until he admits it himself or he gets rid of Masako's infatuation with him..." she muttered. Ayako patted Mai on the head with sympathy.

Yeah, she could absolutely understand Mai not wanting to get between a pissed off fan girl and her prey. While she might have admitted she had a thing for Naru sooner, right now they were better off keeping it quiet.

Especially since they were still on a case.

Didn't mean Ayako was planning to give up teasing her though. She had to have some fun.

* * *

 _A few hours later..._

Matsuyama- _sensei_ (he really didn't deserve that title, in their opinion) was absolutely _livid_ about the broken windows and the lock.

Surprisingly it was Mai who shut him up rather fast, and without any powers to boot.

"Really. So it's _our_ fault that _YOUR_ school has a faulty gas pipe and doesn't bother to secure their shelves properly? All of our liability forms cover _supernatural_ incidents and standard job-site accidents. It does NOT cover preexisting conditions to the buildings or locations we're investigating, especially when it could have very easily been one of your students that could have gotten hurt! By all rights I could very easily sue you and this school for having an unsafe environment! I'm sure the students would love to have an excuse to go after you!" said Mai angrily.

Everyone stared at Mai for a second, before Naru spoke up.

"She's right. The insurance forms the principal signed only cover job-related injuries or standard accidents, not something caused by negligence and unsecured shelves. Legally she would have more than enough cause to take you to court and from the way the students react they'd almost certainly join in on a heartbeat if they knew it was possible," said Naru, glaring at him.

"For all we know you set up the lab so that anyone who walked in there after hours would end up dead from suffocation," said Mai vindictively.

It was no secret that Matsuyama-sensei hated the SPR team and would have been glad to be rid of them.

Seeing the man pale at the mere _thought_ they might accuse him of attempting to kill Mai was rather satisfying. Though not as much as the speculative look on Yasuharu's face when he spoke to Mai after the 'teacher' ran with his tail between his legs.

"Were you serious about that? The gas leak I mean."

"Well I did smell gas, and there was an explosion of sorts, but I'm pretty sure most of that was from the broken jars. I wasn't kidding about the part where I'd sue him if he annoyed me any more though."

"Uh, actually Mai..." said Monk sheepishly. She looked at him. "There is a faulty gas line in that room. Though it could have been caused by that explosion, but it looks old. This was a disaster waiting to happen from the start."

"So we really are hallucinating these things?" asked Yasu, almost disappointed.

"No way would a gas leak explain those dog bites in a class halfway across the school."

"Or the broken floor in the nurse's office," said Monk without thinking.

"What?!"

"Ayako was getting some more medical supplies just in case your concussion got any worse, and the floor suddenly caved in. She barely made it out of there before she fell with it," said Monk.

Mai was really pale now.

"Guess it's a good thing your fever kept spiking whenever we tried to bring you near it. If you had been in one of those beds you could have been seriously hurt or worse," he finished.

"Right, I think the students should all stage a boycott of attending any more classes until this is over... or that complete ass is fired," said Mai flatly, very pale.

"Boycott?" asked Yasu, almost looking interested in the idea.

"Well it's pretty clear the teachers don't actually _care_ about their students, or they've given up on caring. So until they get the message that something is wrong with this school or their behavior, I say boycott. It's not illegal to skip school and having so many students missing is really bad publicity for it...especially if the reporters get wind of _why_ you're doing it. At the very least it'll force them to realize you mean business."

Yasuhara openly seemed to like this idea. They had mostly been tolerating it with resignation...it had never occurred to them that skipping school en masse would force the teachers to do something or deal with the inevitable publicity and rumors from the media.

"I think we should try that. At the very least we can organize study groups for the younger students until they get the hint or we transfer to a new school," said Yasuhara.

And the best part was that the teachers couldn't really retaliate. It was a peaceful protest by the students who were affected, though they would need the majority of them for it to work.

Yasuhara was already making a note of who to talk to in order to get everyone on board with the idea.


	2. Chapter 2

Mai found herself hugged again. She didn't mind though. Yuu-chan was warm, almost like a giant teddy bear.

It took her a few seconds to register she wasn't asleep and she definitely heard amusement from Ayako...and Masako just sounded irritated beyond belief.

"Why is he letting her hug him so tightly like that?" said Masako openly vexed.

After seeing the hitogata that took the place of the students, Mai had just felt exhausted. So she had taken a nap in the van in the back row seat...only to find herself hugging _Naru_ when she woke up as they stopped.

"Well, Naru does tend to act more fond of her than he does you," said Monk. Rather tactless of him really.

"Besides Mai's been running a fever ever since that dragon," said John, trying to placate Masako a bit.

Ayako snorted.

"She isn't running a fever," said the self-proclaimed priestess. "I always thought it was weird that her temperature was a bit below normal the last time she collapsed," said Ayako. "She's actually at a more normal temperature now that she was then."

Especially now that they knew Mai could astral walk...it explained why she collapsed, though she hadn't figured out how to do it on purpose yet.

Masako wasn't placated. She looked pissed that Naru was letting Mai use him as a teddy bear without even a look of protest or annoyance. Whereas he would barely _look_ at her during their 'dates'. He always looked rather pained and it upset her.

"Having a good nap, Mai?" asked Ayako snickering. She could tell the girl was awake and didn't blame her in the least for pretending to still be sleeping. She would to if she had someone like Naru to hug and he wasn't trying to get away!

"I was until I heard an old woman being a nuisance," she said crossly before yawning.

Ayako sputtered in protest.

"Well you did look pretty cozy like that," said Monk snickering.

Mai blushed and Naru wasn't even looking at her. He seemed more annoyed with the others than anything.

"Well...Naru is pretty warm. Like a hot blanket on a cold day. And it was really hard to sleep in that school," said Mai.

The others winced with sympathy. They could totally understand...they had trouble sleeping in that place too and it had nothing to do with the sleeping arrangements. And for Mai, Naru had always meant "safety" to her.

It made sense she would curl up against him after that last case, especially when she wasn't feeling well. The fact Naru _let_ her was a bit of a surprise.

Mai was getting back into her regular schedule of working as a part-timer with SPR when it happened. It had only been two weeks since that headache of a case involving a kodoku of all things, and she really wanted to forget about it.

Except she walked into her house and found a dripping wet body double of Naru passed out cold on her living room floor, reeking of water that could only come from the depths of a lake or other area with large bodies of water and decayed vegetation.

"Yuu-chan?" she said in shock.

She checked for a pulse and was relieved he was breathing. She had no idea how to perform CPR. He was cold though, almost like he had been underwater for a very long time. And his clothes were positively ruined.

She rolled him over on his back, if only so he didn't accidentally suffocate on the carpet.

She took out a blanket she could care less about throwing out later...something told her that calling an ambulance was a bad idea at this point. And how was she supposed to explain to Naru about a body double showing up in her _house_?

Yuu was out cold for several hours, though his temperature did start going up around dinner.

By morning she was about to head to school when she heard a groan. She still had half an hour.

"Mai...?"

"Finally awake?" she asked, going to his side.

He tried to sit up, but she was on him like a hawk.

"Ah, ah, ah. You spent the entire night out cold on _my living room floor_ and you're positively freezing. The only thing you're going to be doing is moving into a proper bed after getting cleaned up. There's no way I have anything in your size, since those clothes are a total write off. I'm going to call in sick and then _we_ are going to discuss whether you go to a proper hospital or not... or if I should just cut to the chase and call Naru here," she said with a scolding tone.

Yuu winced at the thought. He was not up to dealing with his brother at this point, never mind he had no idea how the hell he was going to explain somehow falling from the _bottom_ of a lake to Mai's living room.

Mai was already on the phone with her school, and within minutes her day's schedule was cleared up.

The first thing she did was draw a proper bath. While he was rather weak, he could at least do that much. Fortunately he also knew his measurements, or their metric equivalent. Mai took her wallet and left him in her bathroom to clean up. She had to buy some new clothes for him, since his were either gone or ruined by wherever he was before now.

Mai came back blushing and muttering darkly about nosy old ladies. Yuu was just glad to get out of the clothes he had been stuck in for far too long. He had to grin at her when he realized none of them were in dark colors, save for the jeans which were a dark blue. She also brought a lot of food, because obviously he was going to be starving.

Yuu felt a _lot_ more human than he had before now, and was positively energetic compared to how he was the night before. Though he was still rather lethargic.

At least he could sleep on a proper bed and not the floor. He was still rather curious as to how Mai managed to pay for a house with three bedrooms when she clearly lived alone, or why she wasn't simply renting an apartment.

Mai was on the computer, chatting with Yasuhara in between catching up with her studying. Outside of making tea and acting as a shield between Naru and any potential clients she had more than enough time to do her homework.

And oddly, Naru didn't mind helping her out in that regard because at least she was _trying_ to do something productive with her time instead of wasting it. At least she only bothered him whenever she was _genuinely_ stuck.

Naru could feel Mai's vindictive amusement from his desk.

"What's going on?"

"It seems my 'suggestion' to Yasuhara from our last case has born fruit. Matsuyama just got fired and is banned from teaching ever again. He also reported a few changes to the way the teachers have been treating them."

Naru snorted.

"What did you do?"

"Told him that if they weren't willing to admit they were treating the students like dogs, then maybe they should boycott the school until they got the message. Peaceful protest and all that. Yasuhara organized the club leaders and those that the younger students would listen to and made mass study groups so they wouldn't fall behind on their education...but since the mass boycott started _after_ the case, the media jumped on it. Apparently the fact that the teachers, lead by Matsuyama, wouldn't even let them have a proper memorial for the dead student caused enough bad press that they had to fire him," said Mai rather smugly.

Naru felt rather smug as well. Matsuyama had been a massive thorn in their side from day one, _and_ had been the entire reason that the problem started in the first place!

There was now a marked difference in the school, but the fact remained that the students weren't going to take any more of the crap Matsuyama pulled.

Though apparently it took Yasuhara threatening to have a mass transfer out of the school before they took them as being dead serious about the fact they had enough. The fact that he had brought a signed petition with the names of almost every single student in the school had only hammered it in that they were not playing around.

"Very devious of you, Mai," said Naru rather pleased.

"He annoyed me greatly," said Mai. "Speaking of annoyances, has Masako tried to blackmail you into another fake date lately? She seemed rather angry with me for some reason."

Naru rolled his eyes.

"It would seem she's finally starting to get the message I have little to no romantic interest in her. Either that or her sensibilities were highly offended by the fact I let you take a nap in my lap the entire drive back from that school and didn't complain," he shot back.

"Well with any luck she'll get over her infatuation with you. Because all those amateur dramatics she kept pulling just to get your attention were rather childish," said Mai.

Naru blinked. So even Mai could tell that Masako's feelings for him was more in line with infatuation than any genuine interest. At least Mai was _professional_ in spite of her open interest in him.

Even so at the rate this was going they were going to need a new medium. Unless Masako could figure out her own feelings, she was going to be more hindrance than help.

"So how is your friend that's crashing in your spare room?"

Mai had called in to warn him that she was going to be away for a few days because a friend had fallen sick and she was the only one he trusted to actually show up and help. She came back rather cheerful while lightly complaining about "Yuu-chan". Naru's interest died when she mentioned he was a fan boy of Eugene Davis, the brother of the famous researcher Oliver Davis.

Naru had flat out stated he was not answering stupid questions about mediums.

Mai had snickered when he said that, considering she already had to deal with the Occult club at her school for similar reasons. The second they found out what her part time job was, they hounded her with stupid questions for weeks.

Finally she had them make a list of things they wanted to know and narrowed it down to things Naru had a higher probability of actually answering. She outright vetoed anything to do with aliens.

Naru had looked annoyed, but had her write down the answers since he still didn't have a handle on kanji quite yet. At least it had shut them up.

"Still rather weak, but he's doing far better than when he begged to stay at my place."

Naru was about to say something when he heard frantic knocking.

Two teen boys were in their office, looking very much like delinquents who were living on their own. One was rather feral looking with a deep scar across his nose. The other was a silent, steady person with an odd barcode on his cheek.

"Is this the Psychic Research place?" asked the feral one.

"What's the problem?" asked Mai, serious. She could tell they really needed help.

"Our friend has gone into a strange coma and won't wake up. He went to sleep one night and it took us hours to realize something was wrong. There's no reason for him to still be out, and hospitals aren't an option," supplied the quiet one.

"Why come to us?" asked Naru.

"He mentioned something odd about spirits the night before. How they seemed to be unable to notice him," said the quiet one.

"Your friend is a psychic?" asked Naru seriously.

The quiet one nodded.

"What's your names?" asked Mai gently. Something about her voice put them at ease, just a little.

"Joushima Ken," said the feral one.

"Kakimoto Chikusa. Our friend is named Mukuro."

"Can you help him?" asked Ken almost desperately. He could tell that if they didn't wake up Mukuro soon then something bad would happen. It would devastate them.

"First sit down and tell us exactly what happened before he went into a coma," said Naru. "Mai, tea."

She nodded.

The two teens sat down and explained what little the knew of what happened. It definitely sounded like a case for SPR, at least the fact that it was a medium who needed help. They relaxed a bit more with the snacks Mai brought out.

It was clear they hadn't had a decent meal in some time.

"What do you think Naru?"

"At the very least we should investigate whether this is a genuine case," said Naru. The fact he wasn't dismissing them outright like the last office they tried brought hope.

The last attempt they made was with a bunch of amateur idiots who were more interested in the ghosts than actually _helping_ their friend. It had pissed Ken off to no end.

 _Three hours later..._

"This is where you were staying?" said Mai appalled. Not because of the conditions, but the fact they thought this was acceptable.

"Not like we can afford anywhere else," said Ken. "He's this way."

Lin did not look happy, but there was something about this place that had Mai's instincts screaming at her to run like hell in the other direction. Run and never look back.

The closer they got to the third teen, the more Mai felt something bad was happening. Like they were walking into a trap.

She barely even registered it when she blacked out, though she did hear Naru cry out in alarm when she did.

"Mai!"

Naru quickly reached for the unconscious girl, and his eyes widened.

"I can't sense her at all. Lin?"

He reached for her and shook his head.

"She's alive, but her soul is missing," he said. He looked at the startled teens, who had no idea what happened. "Does this friend of yours know how to astral project?"

"Astral what?"

"Can he project his soul out of his body?" clarified Naru, realizing what Lin was getting at.

The two shared a look.

"Yeah, he can do that. It's difficult, but he can do it," said Ken slowly.

Naru looked pissed.

"This isn't a medical condition. It's a trap for astral walkers," he said furious.

And Mai had walked right into it, unaware of the danger. They needed to find and disable it before too much time passed and her body died. There was still a residual charge, but for the moment her body was just empty.


	3. Chapter 3

Mai was in hell, or at least the Eastern variant of it. That or the Greek, but she was betting the Japanese version of a Buddhist hell.

She heard a child crying and instinctively went to the sound. There, crouched in a corner was a boy with dark blue hair and duo-colored eyes.

" _Did they kill you too?"_ he asked.

Mai blinked.

"What's your name?"

" _Mukuro. Rokudo Mukuro."_

She smiled.

"My name is Mai. Can you tell me how you came here?"

Mukuro sniffled.

" _I was so tired. I laid down in my area, and I woke up here. It felt like something ripped me out of my head,"_ he replied.

She bent down and pulled him into a hug.

"Well I think you've spent enough time in this boring place. Would you like to go home?"

Mukuro nodded eagerly. He quickly wrapped his arms around her neck when she picked him up.

"Now... which way to the exit?"

She just decided to follow her gut and started walking, rubbing soothing circles on Mukuro's back whenever he started to become frightened by whatever he saw behind them.

She saw a light, and felt the weight in her arms increase upon passing what looked like a giant tori.

" _Mai-nee... we have to go through five more gates before we go home."_

"Have you been here before?" she asked. He nodded against her neck. "Well then, onward~!"

Mukuro giggled at little at her enthusiastic voice. Though he was a bit freaked out by the _things_ following them.

They couldn't get close to Mai for some reason, but they would jump on him in a heart beat. He had barely found that hiding space after he split himself up.

Mai didn't look at him, but she hugged him extra tight whenever they passed through another gate. She was trying her best to ignore the things going on around her, because she knew sticking around or getting stuck was a _bad idea_.

Every time they passed through a gate, Mukuro got heavier in her arms...and oddly sounded a few years older.

When they reached the final gate, Mai noticed that his hands were almost as large as Naru's own. And his voice was closer to what a boy her own age would sound like than the child he was before.

" _Kufufufu..._ "

Mai kept her eyes firmly closed, the bigger he got.

"You're going to have to lead us to where the last gate is."

" _Why aren't you looking at me?"_ he asked curious.

If Mai dared to open her eyes, she would have given him an incredulous eye roll.

"Don't you know mythology at all? Every time someone goes into the underworld to bring someone back one of the common conditions to doing it is to avoiding looking back or at the person they're trying to save. Izanagi went to retrieve his wife Izanami and made the mistake of looking at her before she was fully out of the realms of the dead and so she was trapped there for eternity! I am not leaving you _here_ just because I made a stupid mistake like that!" said Mai flatly. "Your friends were extremely worried when they came to our office begging for help!"

Mukuro stiffened.

" _My friends?"_

"Joushima Ken and Kakimoto Chikusa. They came to our office and begged the Shibuya Psychic Research group to help them because you were in a coma and they had no idea why. And this was after they tried another office who were more interested in ghosts than helping you!"

Mukuro stared at her. He had no idea she was a _civilian_ that had come to save him. This changed a lot of things, never mind that he did somewhat owe her for helping him get out of the lower levels to the one that lead out.

" _Kufufufu...very well. I'll keep you on the right path, since you're keeping your eyes closed."_

Mai held out her right hand. Mukuro took it firmly into his gloved one, and started walking to where he could see the gate. She followed him without an ounce of fear.

As they reached the gate, Mukuro felt a resistance to his presence. Almost like something was trying to keep him from passing through.

How annoying.

"What's wrong?"

" _I can't go through. Something is blocking me."_

Mai frowned.

She tried to walk forward and found no resistance at all. Mukuro attempted to follow, but it didn't work. He was stuck.

"I have an idea, but it's going to sound really stupid."

" _Well I have no intention of sticking around. Those demons have been looking rather pissed at me for the entire walk here,"_ said Mukuro annoyed.

"Can you turn back into a child again?" she asked.

Mukuro blinked. With a mere thought he adjusted his size to that of his seven-year-old self. The same one she found originally. He would forever deny the fact he squeaked when she scooped him up into her arms again.

" _What are you doing woman?!"_ he said, sounding very childish. Then again, he looked like a child so it stood to reason.

"Well I highly doubt I could carry you on my back, and you trying the same thing might give whatever is keeping you here a chance to leave you behind anyway. But if I were carrying you through the last portal..."

Mukuro was silent with shock.

" _You don't even know who I am,"_ he said quietly.

"Well I got enough of an idea while I was carrying you before. No one deserves to go through even a fraction of what was done to you or your friends. And I don't blame you for what you did to that family. There's no way anyone would be okay being stuck with more of the same fools who hurt you so badly that soon after escaping those labs," said Mai bluntly. "You're someone who deserves a second chance to be free and I'm going to do everything in my power to see to that you get it. You and your friends."

There was a bright spot of warmth in his chest. Almost like he was coming home after a bad day and knew things would be alright. He said nothing, but cuddled closer into her chest and wrapped his arms around her a little tighter. Mai hugged him closely, making it clear that she was not going to let him go.

She took one step and found some resistance...but she was a stubborn girl. She kept on walking regardless of any 'pain' she felt or how tired she was. She followed her gut and kept walking until she felt herself falling. Falling through the sky past clouds and storms with the sun beaming down on her back and into a thick mist on the ground. The warmth in her chest sparked into a conflagration of _fire_ and it felt like things would be okay.

She practically launched herself out of the makeshift bed with a gasp of air.

"Mai!" said Naru with open relief.

She could feel her heart thudding against her chest, as something kept pressing down on her. Like it was lulling her back into a sleep from where she would never awaken.

"Mukuro-sama!" came the yelp of Ken.

"Kufufufu... so she wasn't lying about you going for help," said a voice.

"What happened?" asked Naru.

Mai shook her head.

"We need to get out of here first. Otherwise _we_ are going to be drawn back into that place and I don't think we'll escape so easily a second time," said Mai firmly.

Naru nodded and didn't argue when the trio joined them in the van.

Once she could think clearly and the sensation of her trying to fall asleep was gone, she turned to get a better look at the boy she rescued.

Mukuro was close to Naru's age, and his eyes were far more...ahem, eye-catching...in real life. He looked openly exhausted from the ordeal.

Once they were safely back in SPR's office, and Mukuro had some coffee in him, he explained what happened. Or what little he knew of it.

His friends were sticking _very_ close to him for obvious reasons.

"I walked into a spirit trap. I hate those things, and I didn't even realize it was there until I found myself back in hell again," said Mukuro crossly.

Spirit traps were especially popular in the Mafia, particularly when someone was trying to capture a particularly tricky Mist. The _only_ reason he knew what the damn things were was because they were a particular favorite of the Esterneo while they were testing the Possession bullet on him and they were a pain to get out of.

He had been so tired he had been stuck there until Mai got him out.

"Tell me about these spirit traps," said Naru.

"Basically they're an ambush point for those who can see spirits and walk among them. I wasn't expecting one in Japan which is why I let my guard down. It takes me hours to destroy the blasted things if I know they're there," said Mukuro annoyed.

"If you know how to break them, then why..."

Why did you get caught and need Mai's help to break out?

"I was exhausted and tired. I didn't even register what it was before I went to sleep, and when I did it was too late. I suppose it's fortunate they found someone who could spirit walk almost as well as I can in time to get me out of there. I was losing my connection to my body when she found me," said Mukuro.

Mai blushed.

Naru was downright pissed.

"Can you tell me how to locate these...spirit traps... so we know what to look for in case of a repeat? We have a medium on call and I would rather she not get stuck by one."

Mukuro gave off his weird laugh, but gave Naru a list of things to look for.

It was as the trio was about to leave that Mai spoke up.

"And where do you think you three are going?" she said, hand on her hip.

"We're going to find someplace to stay," said Mukuro as if it were obvious. They couldn't afford a hotel and places like that left a trace that could be used to find them.

Mai's glare doubled.

"And you expect me to let you go after the beating you took in that version of hell? There's no way you're going to be able to do much besides recover after what just happened, and that place you picked was so beaten down even the homeless avoid it for good reason!" she said crossly.

Mukuro wasn't the only one staring at her. Everyone save for Lin and after a few moments Naru, when he realized what she was planning, looked surprised at her outburst.

"And what do you expect us to do?" asked Ken, almost curious.

"You three are going to stay with me until you find a _decent_ place to stay. I already have one recovering medium crashing in my house. I can handle three more people, so long as you don't mind sharing a room."

The trio stared at her for a moment, in shock that she would openly offer a place in her home.

"Are you sure about that Mai?" asked Naru carefully. Inwardly he was seething at the idea of more boys in Mai's house.

"It's fine, and like I said I already have someone crashing in my place. Adding a few more won't do any harm and they look like they need a real place to stay for a while until they move on. Besides, didn't you say something about getting another medium for the team?" she said sensibly.

Naru didn't look a bit happy at that, but her arguments were sound.

Mukuro looked between them before chortling. He was jealous, how amusing!

And it only doubled when he met the 'other' medium in Mai's home.

"So let me get this straight. You're keeping his identical twin brother here and he has no idea?" said Ken confused.

"Naru is a bit of an idiot sometimes. The fact he didn't pick up Mai had help when she started astral walking was amusing, but I want to keep this quiet for as long as possible," said Yuu cheerfully from the table.

"Why?" asked Mukuro amused.

"Because knowing him he only came here to find me. If he knows I'm in Mai's home he might try to leave before he confesses he likes her, and I'm not going to let him go home that easily. Besides, Japan is rather good for him," explained Yuu.

Mukuro snickered. So his guess wasn't that far off.

"So what's this about needing a medium...?" asked Mukuro. He didn't really get what they would need one for.

"Mediums can channel spirits into their bodies, or at least Masako can. They can also detect or see spirits, so having one in our group that isn't trying to flirt with the boss would be a major bonus," said Mai. "It's completely voluntary if you want to do it, and they pay anyone who helps out on cases really well. It is a research group after all, and the only experiments we do are to learn more about spirits. None of it is on our team."

Mukuro was silent for a moment. This was a really good way to make some cash and lie low on certain radars, as no one would expect to find his group working with _psychics_ or ghost hunters.

And he could see his minions were worn down from his mishap with the spirit trap... a few months hiding in this area would do wonders for their morale and mood.

And then he ate Mai's cooking.

Screw buying that store bought crap again... there was no way he was leaving if she agreed to keep providing food like this as well as a warm bed and an actual bath!

Sure he ended up learning more about mediums and the spirit realm from Yuu (who's really name was Eugene, but found Mai's nickname too amusing to drop), but that was a small price to pay. Besides, he felt at peace for the first time in _years_.


	4. Chapter 4

Mai was out getting groceries when she stumbled across a little boy terrified out of his wits. He was carrying a massive book and he looked exhausted.

She didn't even have to ask what was wrong, because she clearly saw foreigners looking for someone. The fact the boy was trembling at the sight of them was enough for her.

She took out her phone and adjusted her position, blocking him from immediate view of the men.

"Hey Mukuro, are you free at the moment? I need a little help carrying groceries back," said Mai. A few minutes later she rattled off where she was, and soon she saw the familiar pineapple haired medium approaching her.

"Kufufufu... what do we have here?" he asked, spotting the child who was hiding behind Mai.

"I don't know but those men over there are clearly looking for him," said Mai, adjusting her grip on the bags.

Mukuro took one look at the men she pointed out and growled. Chikusa's own eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"Want me to take care of them?" he asked quietly.

"Too many witnesses," said Mukuro.

Chikusa nodded, and reached for several of the bags Mai had. Mukuro took the rest and she gently picked the kid up.

"There, there. It's alright," she said soothingly. The kid latched onto her neck like it was a lifeline.

It was pretty obvious the men saw her and were planning to make a beeline straight for the group. But Mukuro caused them to miss which street they turned onto.

Several of the idiots tried to follow only to be hit by a semi. It took them no time after that shock to realize they'd been tricked.

Once they were inside the house, Mukuro set Ken on watch. If those men followed then they would find more than they bargained for.

Mai sat the little one down and took out some juice from the fridge. The little boy happily accepted the drink, relaxing a little.

"Who's this?" asked Yuu.

Mai looked at the little one who clutched his book rather tightly.

"My name is Fuuta. Fuuta de la Stella."

Mukuro, who had been half paying attention while waiting for the men to show up started swearing. He had thought the brat was familiar!

"What is it?" asked Mai.

"You mean to tell me you stumbled onto the _Ranking Prince_?!" said Mukuro in disbelief. No wonder so many mafioso were here!

Fuuta winced and held his book much tighter.

"Who?" said Mai baffled. Yuu looked just as confused.

Suddenly things started floating as Fuuta's eyes became glazed.

"Mai Taniyama is ranked number one at not turning down requests from children, ranked number three as the most maternal, and ranked number one as the best person to locate when it comes to psychics with Flames," said Fuuta with a distant voice. Things dropped as he cut off the connection...and he promptly wrote it all down in his book.

Mai blinked, while Yuu looked openly interested.

"You have to introduce him to Naru. If anyone would know how to train his powers and clairvoyance it would be him," said Yuu firmly.

Mai nodded. At least she knew Naru wouldn't try to take advantage of little Fuuta.

"Mukuro-sama, they're here. Looks like they plan to surround the house," said Ken from the window.

"What exactly do those men plan to do to Fuuta?" demanded Mai.

Mukuro's eyes were flat and without any sympathy for them at all.

"They intend to use his abilities to rise through the ranks, whether he wants to help them or not. As you probably know, having the sort of information he can locate would make him _very_ popular with a lot of unscrupulous people, especially in Italy."

Mai looked at him hard. She was hugging Fuuta tightly to her, as if she were trying to protect him from that.

"Get rid of them. I don't care how you do it, but I don't want to traumatize Fuuta-kun any more than he already is," said Mai firmly. She was _pissed_ that someone would want to use a little boy because of his unique gifts.

"Kufufufufu... as you wish, Mai," said Mukuro smirking darkly.

The men outside vanished into a barrier... but there was little doubt about their chances of survival. Mukuro wasn't exactly _merciful_ when it came to mafioso.

Fuuta relaxed in Mai's arms. The poor kid was absolutely exhausted from running away.

"Yuu, you don't mind sharing a room with him do you?" she asked gently.

"Of course not," said Yuu. He went to use the restroom and came back downstairs. And he was just in time to see Mai yelling at someone. It wasn't Mukuro, who was hiding behind her with the other two in fear of the people outside.

"You are not arresting someone who has literally been through hell already! What exactly are you trying to charge him with anyway?!" she demanded.

The men with bandages and black coats gave him the creeps. He stayed inside but left the window open. Fuuta was shaking behind him.

" **They have attacked the Todd familigia without provocation, and destroyed two others."**

Mai's face twitched.

"If you're talking about the idiots who experimented on Mukuro and his friends, or the family that took them in soon after the managed to escape the labs, then your reasoning is invalid. They were not mentally culpable of those two incidents and unless you can prove they were in their right minds after being subjected to such inhumane treatment then you can't have them," she said flatly, irate.

The men stared at her with cold, blank expressions.

" **And the men they just killed?"**

Fuuta was shaking, but he came outside to stand behind Mai. The 'men' got a good look at him, and suddenly they understood.

"They were after me. Mai-nee told Mukuro to get rid of them for her," he said quietly, holding her hand rather tightly.

" **You intend to offer sanctuary to these three as well as the Ranking Prince?"** the lead one inquired.

"I do. I'm not going to let them suffer anymore than they already have," she said firmly, eyes blazing amber with conviction.

" **Very well. We shall investigate your claims in regard to their case, but should they step out of line again you shall suffer the penalties alongside them."**

"Fine," she said curtly, more than a little pissed off after today.

Seeing them disappear in that black fire, Mukuro almost sank to his knees. He laughed in a shaky voice.

"You truly are full of surprises, Mai," he said in shock.

He never thought he would see someone stand up to the _Vindice._ Much less convince them that they couldn't arrest them for what they did before they came to Japan.

Mukuro might have considered leaving at some point...but after what Mai just did for _their_ sake and no one else's, well, any thoughts of leaving died then and there. She was the first person to stand up for them and actually treat them like human beings.

She wasn't a mafioso, and she never made demands of them that they were unwilling to do. At most she asked for help around the house and small chores that were simple enough to accomplish. She didn't _expect_ anything out of them other that what they would agree to. She gave them a CHOICE.

He was tired of running. Perhaps he had finally found an actual home for him and his little brothers.

Hearing Fuuta's stomach growl loudly, Mai gently patted him on the head.

"You did good, Fuuta-chan. Now how about we order in for dinner?" she said gently.

Fuuta nodded, hugging her rather tightly.

* * *

 _Two days later..._

Naru took one look at the _child_ Mai was carrying and raised an eyebrow. This was not a babysitting service, and while they had accidentally stumbled upon a second medium (thus allowing him to opt out of hiring Masako if he could help it) he was not going to hire a kid. Especially one that barely looked _nine_.

And then his annoyance turned to shock and understanding when he saw Fuuta cause most of the loose furniture to float around while using clairvoyance of all things. Accurate clairvoyance at that.

"Fine, he can stay," said Naru, though it was pretty obvious to everyone in the office that his reluctance was faked.

Fuuta looked positively thrilled.

"How did you find him anyway?" asked Naru.

"He found me. Mukuro got rid of some thugs who found out about his gifts and wanted to use it for their own illegal gains," said Mai, gently patting Fuuta on the head. "He's going to stay with me for now, since Yuu-chan doesn't mind sharing his room. I just wish he'd reconcile with his family already."

Naru repressed his annoyance at hearing about Yuu-chan again. At least now he had something to do while he waited for Mai to leave her school for the day.

Best of all was the way Fuuta actually _listened_ to his instructions. Most kids his age were annoying brats, but he was quite a bit more mature for his age. He seemed to treat Naru as an older brother of sorts. He was also endlessly fascinated with Lin's Shiki, who seemed to regard Fuuta with a sort of odd curiosity.

* * *

Madoka had expected to only find Naru, Lin and possibly Naru's first actual crush in the office when she arrived. She honestly couldn't wait to meet Mai and get a good feel for the girl.

Anyone who could catch and hold _Naru's_ attention when it came to romance had to be interesting!

She came in...and found a little boy floating things under Naru's gentle guidance, a girl about Naru's age doing homework on the side, and a medium looking rather bored while reading one of the many books that were in the office. He had a cup of proper coffee on the table.

"My, my! Doesn't this place look rather lively!" she said cheerfully.

Naru stiffened in shock and slight horror.

"What are _you_ doing _here_?" he asked.

Madoka grinned.

"Well someone had to confirm some of the stories Lin's been sharing," she said with glee.

Naru shot Lin a betrayed look. It was hilarious.

"And who is this little cutie?" she asked, bending down so she was eye level with the little boy who was listening intently to Naru earlier.

Mai smiled.

"His name is Fuuta," said Mai. Fuuta was still shy around strangers, and was currently hugging Naru's leg.

Madoka really, really wanted to hug the stuffing out of the cutie.

"If you don't smother him, then you can hug him," said Mai.

Madoka squealed and promptly hugged Fuuta. He was too cute!

Fuuta freaked out for a moment before he relaxed. He trusted Mai-nee and Naru-nii-san. And right now Mai looked amused while Naru looked just plain exasperated.

It didn't stop him from hiding behind Mai the _second_ Madoka loosened her grip enough. That was _terrifying_.

"Madoka, what do you want?" said Naru tiredly.

"How about Mukuro and I go get something for us to snack on while you talk? Fuuta can stay with Lin," said Mai.

Naru looked at her with horror. She was leaving him alone with his teacher?!

Mai and Mukuro snickered at the expression in his eyes.

Only to return with a new case and a very irritated Naru.

"How bad?" asked Mai.

His eyebrow twitched.

"We're going to be dealing with several other groups in a mansion that's owned by a politician," he said flatly. "People have gone missing and we'll have to call in outside help for this one."

"...What's our real objective?" asked Mukuro flatly.

"Someone is using my name and they're all complete amateurs. Our job is to expose the fake and ruin any reputation they're trying to gain with their lies," said Naru in open annoyance.

"Doesn't sound too hard," said Mai. She looked at Mukuro with amusement. "I suppose this could be your first official case with us!"

"Kufufufu. Should we bring Ken and Chikusa?" asked Mukuro.

Naru shook his head immediately.

"Someone has to watch Fuuta. I could bring in Yuu-chan if we have to, but he's better off keeping the other two in line," said Mai.

Naru looked relieved at the idea. He didn't want to drag Fuuta in to a potentially dangerous situation like this. Besides, they needed to look professional and he was safer here.

He would not regret that decision at all when he found out the horrors of the mansion they were going to...


	5. Chapter 5

The reactions to Mukuro's addition to their team were mixed. Especially when they quickly realized he answered not to Naru, but to _Mai._

"Where did you find him?" asked Monk. Mukuro creeped him out.

"His friends found us when he ran afoul of something called a 'spirit trap'. Basically an ambush for people like Mai or possibly Ms. Hara," said Naru.

"...And he looks to Mai for directions why?" asked Monk.

"I feed him," said Mai simply. Monk nodded.

"That would do it," said Monk grinning at her.

Masako shot Mukuro a dirty look, having already guessed he was a potential replacement. He looked at her with dark amusement.

"He's still creepy though," said Monk, shooting Mukuro a Look.

"Kufufufu..."

Monk shivered. That laugh was freaky! Mai giggled at his reaction.

"Mukuro, quit terrifying the adults. It's not their fault they can't handle new things," said Mai with an evil glint.

Monk stared at her.

"Did you just call me old in a really weird way?" he asked slowly.

"Do you want a comforting lie or..."

Monk looked at Mukuro sourly.

"You are a bad influence on her."

"No, that would be Yasuhara and his love of trolling people when he can get away with it," said Mai, shooting a look at the fake Naru. He had been game with pretending to be Naru, as he found the supernatural fascinating.

The fact he was very, very good at research made it easier to bring him in as a satellite member of the team. He found it all rather fun.

Yasuhara _smiled_ at her, and Mai snickered. The two had become instant best friends over trolling people while maintaining innocent expressions. And Mukuro had a grand time watching the looks of horror people shot the "innocent" older sister while Fuuta watched the master at work.

Most people didn't seem to realize Mai was the _master_ at passive-aggressive bitchiness, especially during that time of the month. She could be perfectly civil to outsiders, but if someone pissed her off she insulted them in a way that made it nearly impossible for people listening in to realize her target was being insulted. And if they got angry, then it was usually the other party that got lynched first.

Masako was lucky. Mai had never turned that silken tongue on her in an effort to drive her away from a guy Mai happened to like as well.

Mai took one step into the building and promptly gagged. Mukuro's face scrunched up in annoyance.

"Do we _have_ to do this? Couldn't we confront the idiots after the fact?" asked Mukuro.

"What's wrong?" asked Ayako.

"This building is _infested_ with spirits who had particularly violent ends. I haven't seen this many since I left Italy. Though this is the second time I've been in a building that positively reeks of blood and death," said Mukuro in annoyance. The last time he was in a place like this, it had been the Esterneo labs.

Masako looked like she was going to be sick.

Mukuro made a point to stick close to Mai. He clearly found the whole aura of the building very irritating and wasn't the least bit afraid of it. However he didn't want to find out what effect it would have on an inexperienced astral walker like Mai.

She was only _now_ getting the hang of deliberately projecting her soul out of her body.

Yuu had been torn between horrified and fascinated with the fact Mukuro could literally possess people. Horrified because of the trauma that had been inflicted on him to the point he could take over the bodies of multiple people and even had a bullet that made it far easier.

And fascinated because he didn't know it was possible for a medium to possess the living like that. Naru would be having kittens trying to figure out _how that was possible_.

Mai let Mukuro hover protectively. It was better than him getting up to mischief, especially away from his brothers. And while he would listen to Naru to a point, he only really followed Mai's orders.

The moment Mai figured that out, that Mukuro took simple requests as orders she had been somewhat horrified and vowed never to ask anything of him that she wouldn't do for herself. She was terrified of the power she had over the broken teen.

She wanted him to heal, to be as close to whole as possible.

Mai had a bad feeling about this house, one that only became worse when another person went missing. After that séance, Mukuro had been quite pissed off about something, but refused to say what.

All Mai could get out of him was that a spirit had tried to grab Masako and he had to stab the spectral hand away from the clueless medium. He found the girl rather irritating with how "soft" she was to spirits.

She hated him with equal intensity simply because openly ignored them and pretended not to hear the crying of the trapped souls in the house. He knew they were there, suffering, and he genuinely didn't give a damn. For a bleeding heart like Masako (and those were the _exact_ words Mukuro used) that was tantamount to a grave sin.

Which left Mai acting as the buffer between them. If only for her own sanity. Though if Mukuro kept provoking the other medium she was so going to start breaking out the head slaps.

Mukuro's annoyed expression seemed to be a fixture on his face for the moment.

"What's wrong?"

"That damn spectre that showed up at the séance grabbed her. I sensed them moving earlier, but I didn't know what they were up to," he said crossly.

Anything that felt _that_ much like the Vindice was automatically going to piss him off. Especially since he FELT it every time they did their teleporting trick!

"Right. So I should call in reinforcements?" asked Mai dryly.

"Not yet. We haven't figured out which type of people these things target and Yuu-chan is better off watching Fuuta. I wouldn't trust the other two to know how to operate anything other than the microwave," said Mukuro flatly.

Mai snickered in agreement. Those two damn near worshiped her the second they found out they didn't have to do any of the cooking and only got stuck with the dishes. Most of which just required the dishwasher and someone to put them up.

That or because of the way Mukuro reacted around her, like her word was law.

She still felt somewhat sorry for Lancia-san, but at least Mukuro let him go when she asked.

"Remind me again why we're even doing this? I thought Naru hated the publicity and having to deal with idiots like his impostor."

And really, it hadn't taken long for them to figure out who it was that was impersonating Naru's real identity.

Or rather, impersonating Oliver Davis, famous psychic and researcher.

Honestly, when Yuu heard what they were doing he laughed his ass off. Apparently this happened often enough that he wasn't surprised Madoka had blackmailed them into exposing the fake. Naru didn't give a damn about his reputation, but he hated dealing with amateurs who liked to pretend they were him.

Monk had been star struck, until Mai discreetly kicked him in the shin.

"Right. Naru, do you want me to expose the fraud now or later?" asked Mai.

Naru blinked at her.

"What?"

"I said do you want me to expose the fraud now or later?" she repeated.

"And how exactly do you plan to do that?" he asked, curious.

"Yuu-chan gave me a series of innocent questions to troll... I mean _ask_ Oliver Davis. If he is the real thing, then he'll have no problem answering them in view of witnesses. If he's not, it'll raise a lot of questions about his identity and possibly force him out into the open," said Mai cheerfully.

"I sincerely doubt he'll produce a demonstration on demand," said Naru.

Mai handed over the list. Naru's eyebrows went up more and more the longer he read it. He smirked openly in amusement. While there were a few advanced questions about psychic ability, clairvoyance and spirits in general, most of them were innocuous ones about the locations Davis was known to have spent a lot of time in like England. If he didn't know common information about England and America where he was _known_ to have been at the time, then it raised major red flags about his credibility and identity.

All of them were things Naru could answer without having to think too hard about it.

"You should introduce me to this Yuu-chan sometime," he said with dark amusement.

Mai snickered.

"If any more people go missing or something happens, I'll call him in for help."

Mukuro had agreed to have one of his odd creations holding the cameras when eventually Naru came face to face with "Yuu-chan".

As it was, they didn't have to wait long before an 'extra' was sent their way via an irritated Yuu-chan.

They were all in the base, after trying and failing to find Igarashi-sensei's missing assistant. Masako was feeling rather ill after sensing all the spirits in the air, while Mukuro still had that irritated look on his face.

However he suddenly stood up and looked in the direction of the outside. A few seconds later they found out why...as a swirling vortex of indigo fire appeared.

It promptly spat out a blond teen with a scar on his face and a feral feel about him. Mai got a text from a rather irritated Yuu-chan and Chikusa.

"You tried to microwave a can without removing the contents first?!" she said incredulous with no little amount of annoyance.

"I thought it would be fine!" whined Ken.

She gave him a light head slap.

"Metal sparks in the microwave! You're helping me carry a new one when we get home!" she said annoyed.

"What the hell just happened?" asked Monk, baffled.

"Yuu-chan has the ability to teleport, so long as he has something to use as an anchor. It takes a lot out of him though, so Ken must have really pissed him off when he ruined the microwave," sighed Mai. "He must have used me or Mukuro to pinpoint where to send him."

She got a text. Apparently he had used Mai because his connection to her was strongest.

"Who is this kid?"

"Ugh! I haven't smelled a place this bad since..." said Ken, holding his poor nose.

Since the labs, went unspoken. Mukuro put a hand on his shoulder, calming Ken down.

"Well, I suppose it would be handy having someone so in tune with animals around. Don't cats get spooked around ghosts?" asked Mai to Naru.

"Certain animals do have a stronger affinity for spirits," replied Naru.

Which meant Ken, who had several animal 'channels' he could use, might actually be useful.

"I wonder... does that nose of yours work like an actual wolf?" asked Mai. There were still missing people after all...maybe Ken could sniff them out.

"Don't know. Never really bothered trying and the smell of blood is really strong," said Ken.

"It's worth a try isn't it?" asked Mai, looking at Mukuro.

"What do I get out of it?" asked Ken.

"You get to pick dinner after you help me carrying home the replacement for the microwave you ruined. If you actually find her I'll extend it for a full week. Mukuro gets to pick what we have for lunch."

"Deal!" said Ken with a grin. She'd swear she saw a tail wagging behind him.

"Does he have a wagging tail behind him or is it just me?" asked Yasuhara.

"Oh, so it wasn't me who sees that," said Monk faintly.

"Normally I would tell you off, but in this place I think a little humor would go a long way. Good job Mukuro."

"Kufufufu..."

Monk went to borrow one of Suzuki's shirts for Ken to get a read off her.

Ken switched to his "wolf channel" (much to the open shock of Monk and the others...) and started sniffing around. The scent was still somewhat fresh, so he was able to at least get something.

He followed it right until it went into a deserted hallway, near the center of the house, when it abruptly cut off. Suzuki's room was closer to the center of the home, so they hadn't really gone that far at all.

"No good. The scent cuts off completely right here...and it feels wrong," said Ken.

"Well it was worth a try. Did you get anything else?" asked Mai.

"There is a really foul smell almost covering up hers. It reeks of death," said Ken. He seemed to lean into her hand like a puppy when she patted him on the head.

"Well at least now we know for a fact she was taken by something," said Naru. It was more than they had before, and clearly there was some other force in this mansion kidnapping people. "Lin, get to work on barriers. The last thing I want to deal with is any of our team going missing. From now on no one goes _anywhere_ inside this place alone."

Everyone nodded and no one questioned the fact Ken was crashing with Mukuro. Considering he was sharing a room with Naru and Lin, it only made sense.

(Monk had outright asked to switch with Yasuhara, because Mukuro gave him a really bad vibe, whereas Naru and Lin seemed to openly ignore it.)


	6. Chapter 6

Mai almost bolted up from her bed. She was breathing shakily, as if trying to catch her breath. Her heart was pounding and her soul was _screaming_.

Fortunately it was almost dawn anyway. Mai sat in her bed trying to calm her racing heart.

That dream was far too vivid to be anything but a vision from one of the spirits in this place. By the time breakfast came around she was too sick to consider eating much.

Once that was over and they were planning on what to do for today, she squeaked out in shock when Mukuro scooped her up and dumped her firmly on the couch.

"What was that for!"

"You need to take a nap," he said flatly. "You were almost nodding off all through breakfast and you hardly ate anything."

"I'm fine!"

"No, you're being openly effected by the spirits in this place!" said Mukuro crossly. "I can tell they're openly hovering about you for some reason!"

Dead silence.

"They're hovering around Mai?" asked Naru dangerously.

"The harmless ones are. They've been gravitating to her since the séance," said Mukuro.

Mai shivered.

"So that dream I had last night..."

"Was likely a vision of their last moments," said Mukuro. "It seems that whatever happened here had a common theme, which is why they're resonating so strongly. They must not have deviated much when it came to how they died."

"That would explain a lot," said Masako, almost thoughtful. "All of them feel almost the same... if they all died in the same manner then they would resonate with each other."

"In any case, you shouldn't try sleeping without someone to wake you up in case they try something again. Especially since your control over your astral walking is still so weak," said Naru.

"But..."

"We could always have two people at the monitors at night. That way Lin can get some sleep and someone will be able to wake Mai up," said Yasuhara.

"Do I even get a say in this?" asked Mai.

From the looks of everyone else, that would be a "No."

Mai pouted.

She laid down on the couch to take a nap, and barely noticed she was laying in Mukuro's lap. He wasn't Naru or Yuu-chan, but he still felt "safe" to her.

* * *

Mai had another dream, though this time Mukuro was there.

" _Persistent nuisances, I'll give them that."_

Mai shivered. It was the maze again. She didn't want to see the end of it. Mukuro sighed and pulled her close so that her face was away from the scene. At least this time it wasn't from a "first person point of view". She didn't need to experience that terror first hand a second time.

She heard the loud scream and shivered.

Mukuro looked pissed.

" _Mai, focus on me and nothing else. Let the feeling go through and pass over you. Remember the exercises we did with Gene?"_

Mai nodded, shaking.

" _Count back from ten in Italian with me."_

Mai whimpered, but did as he said. He had been helping her learn Italian as a joke, since Yuu-chan was helping her English. Though to be fair he had only suggested it when she happened to mention she was one-fourth Italian. Oddly, she seemed to pick up the language faster than English. Almost like a half-forgotten memory.

When she reached one, her breathing had evened out and she was able to ignore the screaming.

"Why are they targeting me like this? Why not Masako or you?"

Mukuro's eyebrow twitched in open annoyance.

" _Masako is powerful, I will admit that. However her soul doesn't sympathize with them enough for them to properly take hold. She's lived life in a gilded cage and doesn't understand real suffering and fear like we do, except peripherally. And while I sympathize with them the most, I keep a barrier between me and them. You, for some reason, attract them like moths to a flame. And every time one connects to that fire their souls seem to vanish from the house completely. I have no idea why either."_

"So they're coming after me to get out of the house?" said Mai baffled.

" _And because you're on a wider 'receiving frequency' than she is. Which is why you're not going to sleep without someone to watch you, because it can and will overwhelm you. If you can ignore the majority of the screaming, then we might be able to get rid of the other spirits, and possibly weaken the true culprits."_

Mai nodded in his shirt, and the floodgates opened up. She tried to focus more on Mukuro's gentle humming (he could sing, but he didn't particularly like to) and the fact someone had a firm, yet gentle hand on her back rubbing in circles.

She woke up still feeling exhausted, but feeling better than she had that morning. At least she was able to eat something.

She shared monitor duty with Ken and Monk. Mostly because Monk was discreetly trying to figure out how exactly Ken was able to 'shift' like he did earlier.

"So how exactly did you do that whole 'dog' thing?" asked Monk.

"Wolf, not dog," Ken corrected with a glare. He pulled out what looked like odd dentures, "And I used these. I like to call them Animal Channels, because once I put them in I take on the abilities of the fangs they go with."

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"Not as much as what it took for me to learn how to shift originally. It's more like a dull throb at this point," said Ken shrugging. He pretended it was nothing, but he didn't hesitate to lean into Mai when she hugged him.

"What was done to you and the others was horrible, and if Mukuro had left any of those idiots alive I wouldn't hesitate to help deal with them permanently. No one should go through what you did, especially with how young you were," she said firmly.

Monk took one look at Ken's eyes before he dropped any more questions on the subject. He had the feeling he didn't want to know, as Mai had obviously picked up something really bad with her gifts. The fact Ken looked very lost at the moment didn't help either.

"Okay Ken, what do you want for dinner for the next week?"

Ken grinned at her, relieved at the change of subject.

"Steak. Or at least meat. And maybe something other than Japanese dishes."

"I've been meaning to try my hand at making Italian and English dishes anyway," shrugged Mai. "At least I'd get an honest assessment out of people who know what it's _supposed_ to taste like."

Ken started to yawn at that moment. He was exhausted, but this place made all his instincts scream to stay awake, unless he wanted to be taken too.

Mai rolled her eyes.

"Take a nap, wolf boy. I'll wake you if you have any nightmares," said Mai.

Ken protested with a whine, but eventually submitted. Monk raised an eyebrow at the fact Mai was letting him sleep in her lap, but then took another look at the situation.

Ken wasn't even Japanese, regardless of the fact his name was. He was raised in Italy, where they were quite a bit more lax on rules about personal space and physical affection. Hell, they kissed cheeks with greetings and goodbyes!

And right now they were in a house that basically invited nightmares of people dying in horrifying ways. So the idea of having a buddy system for those who might have nightmares wasn't that bad an idea. Especially since they had enough people to rotate the shifts.

Besides, the kid looked like a kicked dog that had finally found a real owner that would love and care for it. A lot of stress he had been holding in relaxed once he was snoozing on Mai's lap. The fact she was running her fingers through his hair didn't hurt either.

Monk shook his head in amusement before going back to the monitors. After what happened earlier with the missing assistant, Mai had convinced everyone to put at least _one_ camera in their room facing the beds.

And when the issue of having to deal with a camera facing them the entire time came up, Mai had given them a look and told them that if they were that worried about them watching someone change then they could do it in the bathroom...and that she had serious questions if they were planning to do anything _else_ in that room with someone sleeping right next to them and with such an atmosphere.

Mukuro hadn't bothered trying to hide his amusement...he had outright started cracking up at the looks on the amateurs faces while Ayako, Monk and Yasuhara all looked like they were desperately trying to hold in their own laughter. Mostly because they had caught what Mai was hinting at, but not saying outright.

They managed to hold it in until after the fakes had left the room at least.

"That was evil," said Yasuhara.

"You can't say they didn't deserve that much, considering what we're actually here for."

"What?" said Monk.

"We're not actually _here_ to investigate the missing people. I mean Masako was, but Naru was hired to investigate a possible fake."

Monk looked a little devastated.

"You mean that's not the real Oliver Davis?"

Mai decided to break it to him far gentler than Naru would have. Odds were he was slightly annoyed Monk was a fanboy of his real identity. She knew he was the real Oliver Davis, but didn't see why it was important.

Naru was Naru, and that was that.

"Monk, from what I've read about Davis he has a brother who's a medium, right?"

"Eugene, I think. Why?" asked Monk.

"If his brother is a medium, then why do they have a fake one on their team? Why not have someone pretend they're Eugene as well as Oliver?" she asked.

"I heard that Eugene is his identical twin. That's not exactly easy to find you know, especially those that won't freak out about ghosts," said Monk.

Mai gave him a look, and Monk drooped in disappointment.

"I suppose it was too much to hope for that I'd meet someone as famous as Oliver Davis on a case."

"You'd be surprised. If he's really that famous, then odds are he could be traveling around using a fake name to avoid being bothered by the amateurs," said Mai, trying desperately not to laugh at the look on Naru's face. "Besides, isn't he more of a scientist than anything? I bet he doesn't let people know what he really looks like because he's not really interested in the fame and recognition."

Monk perked up at that. Naru gave her a Look that said volumes.

He knew that she _knew_ what his real name was.

 _An hour later..._

"You know."

"Yuu-chan told me. He seemed to find the fact someone was using your name hilarious, especially since Madoka-san blackmailed you into actually exposing him."

Naru glared.

"When this is over, I want to have a very long, thorough talk with this friend of yours."

"Give me ten minutes before you show up so I can set up the cameras then," said Mai without thinking.

Naru gave her a Look.

"What."

"Let's just say he's someone you know better than I do who's been wanting to put off you yelling at him for as long as possible. Because he has no doubt you _will_ be yelling at him for being an idiot, even if we still haven't figured out how he's pulling off that portal trick of his."

Mukuro had an idea, but nothing concrete.

Naru put together a lot of little clues in his head.

"Mai, why do you call him 'Yuu-chan'?" he asked slowly.

"Because that's his name. Though I really feel sorry for him, being named Yuujin of all things. Almost like his parents were trying really hard to make sure he had friends in life."

Yuujin, the Japanese word for friend. Which sounded far too much like the English name "Eugene" to be a coincidence.

"And what does this friend of yours look like?"

"About your hair, pale skin, black hair, dark blue eyes and he takes a lot of amusement in wearing brighter colors than you do. When he showed up he honestly looked like he had come out a funeral during a rain storm and he had forgotten to carry an umbrella," said Mai thinking about it. "Oh, and he acts a lot like an old classmate of mine, except he's not pretending everything is alright even when it isn't."

A lot of things that easily added up to a suspicion Naru had in his mind as to who "Yuu-chan" actually was.

Mai yawned. Being in this house was exhausting and she felt like she could sleep for a week.

Naru rolled his eyes.

"Try to sleep Mai."

"Every time I do, the spirits swarm around me and I keep getting stuck in this awful loop of their deaths," said Mai. "Mukuro's been helping block most of it out, but they keep showing up. I'm almost tempted to break out the salt lines."

"Salt lines?"

Mai looked a bit sheepish.

"Well, ever since I started working with you, I've been interested in the supernatural...and I got hooked on this American show that seems to know a lot about it, even if it's fiction. That and Yuu-chan got me hooked on _Doctor Who_. Fuuta loves watching that, and so does everyone else."

Mukuro got a kick out of watching _Supernatural_ with her, but _Doctor Who_ was the go-to show for everyone else.

Naru had a slightly pained look on his face.

"While I'm not a fan of that show, some of the things they use are based on fact... like salt acting as a deterrent for spirits as well as iron. There's a reason why cemeteries usually have iron gates around them."

Mai looked amused.

"I would crack the old joke about that, but it's too corny for me to say with a straight face."

Naru had a relieved look on his face. The old line about people "Dying to get in" as the reason for the gates was ridiculous and annoying.

"Salt lines might work, though if you want I could stay close to make sure it is. At the very least I would be able to wake you up if they start to swarm again."

"Please. It was bad enough the first time they did that, and Mukuro was able to block most of it out."

"Any idea why the victims are targeting you specifically?"

And not the other mediums, went unsaid. Mukuro he could understand... he had already displayed an unusual amount of talent throwing spirits out of a room and getting them to leave him the hell alone, but Masako was powerful in her own right and very sympathetic to spirits to the point of being ridiculous about it.

(Lin nearly had a heart attack when Mukuro bodily threw the man's _shiki_ out of the office when they were annoying him enough. And he didn't even get up to do it.)

"Mukuro said something about me being more of a beacon than the mediums. That and apparently those that get through are able to leave the house entirely and go to where they were supposed to if they weren't trapped. He hoped that allowing them to get it over with would weaken the ones doing all the killing," said Mai.

Naru made a note to speak to the other medium. This was something he never would have expected.

Still, the sight of Mai actually _sleeping_ in Naru's lap (for the second time) had Masako seething for hours. Even if she did realize there was a reason why he was letting her do so, especially inside something like a salt circle.

"I didn't realize this place was that bad for her," said Monk, eyeing the salt.

"It wouldn't be if the damn spirits hadn't figured out she was their best bet for escaping this house and the monsters inside, regardless of the effect the floor plan has on them," said Mukuro crossly. This entire house put him on edge.


	7. Chapter 7

**For those of you with pets, I have Go Fund Me page. Just add /tsukis-vet-visit to find it. It'll also link you straight to my facebook profile and I do accept friend requests!**

* * *

Mai actually looked more like herself after that nap. Between the salt line and Yuu-chan kicking out any spirit that managed to get past it (plus the "safe" feeling of Naru's close presence) she had actually been able to have a dreamless sleep.

She _almost_ missed the pissed look Masako was giving her for napping in Naru's lap. Almost.

Though just because Mai finally had some rest didn't mean she was an idiot. This house gave her a bad vibe from the start, so she dragged Masako _outside_ before she confronted her about the looks.

"What is your problem?" demanded Mai.

"My problem? My problem is you!" said Masako heatedly. She tried to switch back to her "Nadeshiko" personality, but it was too late.

"For the love of the gods... Masako, _when_ are you going to drop this ridiculous infatuation with Naru already? He's barely tolerating your unsubtle blackmail against him, and even _Lin_ is getting tired of how irritable he gets after you force him to take you out on a date!" said Mai, losing her own temper.

Masako looked as if Mai had openly struck her.

"What about you? You keep sitting so close to him and he has yet to say a word about it!" said Masako angrily.

"Maybe because I don't blackmail him into it and only do it when I'm feeling like crap to begin with. Besides, there's a high chance he'll be going back to England soon anyway."

Masako stared at her.

"What."

"Naru might return home to England once he meets Yuu-chan. The only reason the two of them haven't been in the same room is because that idiot medium wants to prolong the inevitable telling off Naru is almost certain to give him for being careless."

Naru had come to Japan looking for his brother. So it only stood to reason that once he found him, that he would go home and possibly drag his twin back with him.

Which was why Mai hadn't argued about the cheerful medium hiding in her house from his twin. She didn't want Naru to leave, let alone Yuu-chan.

Masako looked shaken, but rallied quickly enough.

"And what about you! I've seen how you look at him."

"I like Naru, but I'm not stupid enough to get between a fan girl and their absurd crush. Besides, I'm terrified if he knew how I felt he'd send me away. I'm fine with watching from a distance," said Mai.

Which wasn't entirely true, but it was what she kept telling herself.

She really wanted things to change, for something _good_ to go right with her life and make things better. But she was terrified that if it did, things would only get even more heartbreaking than what she already went through.

She would not let what happened with her "family" happen a second time. Having to go by her mother's maiden name hurt.

Masako looked at her angrily. She began to stomp back to the house, but Mai grabbed her.

"Don't. If you're going to be angry and careless, then do it out here away from that house. Otherwise you'll be another victim," said Mai. Her eyes were glowing an amber color, and her instincts were screaming not to let Masako in the house in this state. She would almost certainly not survive.

Masako almost looked like she wanted to argue, but there was something about Mai's eyes that told her it was a _bad idea_. She huffed and went walking around the house to see if she could find anything to help the team later. Like a secret door or something.

And to be honest, being out of that place was a lot more relaxing that having a bad day inside it.

* * *

"So there's a high chance Masako will finally drop her crush on me?" asked Naru. There was a distinct hint of relief in his voice as he said this.

He could be coldly professional around the girl, but the fact she had the gall to blackmail him for dates really pissed him off to no end. If he hadn't been sure that it would reach his parents (and Madoka) he would have snapped _months_ ago and sent her packing once and for all.

Especially now that they had Mukuro to work with. While he was untrained and a bit more vindictive, he at least didn't annoy Naru as much as Masako had with her amateur dramatics and bleeding heart.

Mukuro came in with a pissed off look on his face.

"Have any of you seen Ken around in the last hour?"

"He said something about using the bathroom earlier..." said Monk, a look of dawning horror coming on his face.

While Ken was rude, feral and inclined to act like an animal more often than not, he didn't deserve to suffer the inevitable fate of the other victims.

"You don't think..." started John.

Mai felt a cold rage go through her soul. Someone had taken one of her friends and she was _not_ going to let some jumped up ghost get away with that!

"Can you sense him?" asked Mai, her fury evident.

"Vaguely. I can tell he's alive, but that's it."

There was the distinct sound of some...interior redecorating... from deeper in the house.

"I think Ken's awake and pissed," said Mai, as if talking about the weather.

"He probably got lost and they grabbed him, thinking he was easy prey. How they pulled it off during the day I have no idea, but they must have been desperate," commented Mukuro. The group was already following the sounds of things being destroyed.

Ken was _definitely_ pissed.

They managed to make it just in time to see Ken completely _destroy_ a wall with gold in his eyes. The second he saw Mukuro and Mai, he collapsed. Monk picked him up and swore.

"He's burning up."

Naru looked past the hole. He could clearly see a line straight through...and from the limited vision from the light, it looked like Ken had broken out of the missing center of the house.

It wouldn't take long for Ohashi-san to bring in people to investigate (all over twenty as a precaution, since the spirit seemed to target the younger generation first...) and without preamble SPR and the other investigators were all thanked for their time and sent away with a nice fat check.

Naru was just happy his fake broke down when he saw the bodies, freaking out over the fact that a _ghost_ had done such horrible things while dead.

It meant their job was most certainly done, especially since the house "mysteriously" burned down a month later.

* * *

This was it. Today was the day Naru meet "Yuu-chan", and Mai could honestly say that she wasn't looking forward to it, regardless of how funny his reaction would be.

And it was. Naru took one look at his twin brother in much brighter clothes arguing over a game with Fuuta and Ken...and his face went through a myriad of emotions.

Right before he punched Gene in the face.

"What the hell, idiot scientist?!" said Gene, holding his jaw.

"You've let me worry about you for _months_...and you've been hiding here?" said Naru furious.

Gene winced.

"Well for the first month, I couldn't really move that much and I was busy helping Mai learn how to astral walk properly."

"And the rest?"

"I really don't want to leave, and there was a big chance that you would want to go back to England once you found me," admitted Gene.

Naru looked like he wanted to dispute that...but he couldn't. If he _had_ found Gene months ago, he would have tried to convince his brother to go home, if only to see their parents.

Now though... now he wasn't so sure. Especially not when he got a good look at Mai's face and understood why Gene was reluctant to go home just yet.

Naru sighed.

"One week."

"What?"

"We visit England for one week before coming back. To be honest Japan has more interesting cases and there's less chance of running into my...fans... here," said Naru finally.

Gene perked up at that.

"So you are coming back, right?" asked Mai. Even Naru couldn't miss the almost desperate tone of her voice.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily...and even if I weren't inclined to return, Gene almost certainly would come back."

Gene nodded in agreement. He liked Mai, who was a breath of fresh air compared to the other girls he knew. She accepted him completely, and could care less about his fame as a medium.

Mai was going to be absolutely _miserable_ until she saw Naru again, once they went to visit their parents.

* * *

Mai whimpered. She thought that memory had been repressed, but apparently having Gene and Naru gone to another country had brought it back to the surface.

She hated remembering that day. Absolutely _hated_ that moment when everything fell apart.

 _She was about to walk into her house when she felt something in her soul cry out that something was wrong. Something terrible had happened, something that was almost irreversible._

 _She turned the doorknob and went inside. Her mother was in the kitchen preparing for dinner and turned at the sound of someone in the house._

" _Oh, are you a friend of..."_

 _The world fell apart around her. Her own mother didn't recognize her, and she could see from the kitchen table that her younger sibling looked pleased about this new development. No, that wasn't right, they looked rather smug about it. An indigo hue had taken over the brown, and something in his eyes made her body felt chilled to the bone._

The scene changed, but the memory of that horrible day when her mother suddenly forgot everything about her daughter still hurt as fresh as it had the moment it happened.

She felt a presence behind her, and didn't even think twice about it. She hugged the extra like a life line while bawling her eyes out, uncaring of the memories coming back like a movie being played out.

Arms wrapped around her and let her cry it out.

" _It's okay, Mai. We're right here and we're not going anywhere."_

Mai didn't ask who it was. She _knew_ who they were, but she was so upset over the memories she couldn't really register it. All she knew was that with these two around, she was _safe_.

The feeling of warmth chased away the darkness, revealing a beautiful sky around them. They were floating among the clouds, which rumbled and revealed the fury of a storm, complete with rain and lightning while the sun shined so brightly overhead. A dense mist had formed on the 'ground', hiding everything from view.

Mai slowly drifted off into a real sleep, unaware of the effect the dream would have on the two who had somehow been drawn into her mental landscape.

 _In England..._

Naru, or rather Oliver, woke up with something of a start. Next to him Gene was shaking his head as if to clear it.

"You saw that, right? I wasn't just me this time?" asked Gene.

"What was that?"

"Mai's soul called to us. She did it a lot when she first met you."

"You're the reason she had such clear visions?" said Oliver in surprise. That explained a lot. He had thought it odd that an amateur like Mai with zero experience in their line of work could pull out such clearly defined visions without any effort at all.

Finding out Gene had been guiding her from the spirit realm explained everything.

"Well it's not like I had much else to do when I somehow got caught behind the seal that Mai had on her powers," said Gene, rubbing his eyes. "However it's the first time I saw _that_."

Oliver winced. Whatever he had been expecting when Mai dragged their souls to her while asleep, _that_ was most certainly not it.

The fact she was openly crying her eyes out while clinging to him was a sight that was going haunt him for a good long while until they returned to Japan. Besides, there was a weird pain in his chest from being so far away from Mai.

He hadn't even realized the fact he felt at home with her until they were several countries away. And now it felt like an ever present ache that demanded he return quickly.

Gene shuddered. The visions Mai was having wasn't of someone else... they were memories she had viciously repressed for some time before she moved to Tokyo.

The fact she was so open and caring after going through _that_... it was a miracle. Though it did explain why she clung to his brother so fast.

"Are you alright?" asked Gene.

"I'll be better when we're home."

"And home is..."

Oliver gave him a look, and Gene perked up. Clearly his brother's definition of "home" had shifted away from England. Japan had been good for them, especially meeting Mai.

She had known about his real identity, but hadn't treated him the least bit different. To her, Oliver Davis was a celebrity she only knew about in passing and didn't particularly care about.

His brother was firmly "Naru" in her mind, and not some famous scientist with impressive psychic powers. She treated him like a normal person and put up with his quirks without even one trying to take advantage of him and she genuinely cared about him.

"So... are you going to confess you like her when we go back, or do I have to bug you until you do?" asked Gene, grinning at his brother.

Oliver threw a pillow at his twin. Though there was no denying he was blushing.

"Idiot medium."

"Idiot scientist."


	8. Chapter 8

Mai simply couldn't sleep well for the entire week Naru and Gene (Naru had a good laugh at his brother's expense for the nickname Mai had given him) were in England.

So it was only natural that when they came back, she crashed on the couch in the office for hours, blissfully ignoring the fact Gene had put her head in his lap the moment she was out cold.

"What exactly did you two see?" asked Mukuro. He knew Mai had been having reoccurring nightmares that had nothing to do with spirits (he had put a barrier around the house the moment he became a permanent resident) but something in her past.

Gene and Naru winced in unison. Mukuro narrowed his eyes at them both, as did Fuuta who was happy to have his "big brothers" back. Since he was legally in Mai's custody, he couldn't go with them to England.

Gene shared a look with Naru, who sighed.

"We saw what could only be repressed memories. At least a few years old. She couldn't have been more than thirteen or fourteen at the time."

Mukuro was patiently waiting to hear the rest of it. Mai curled up closer to Gene, as if she knew what was being discussed and didn't want to hear it. Gene ran his hand through her hair, which seemed to calm her down a lot.

"Mai's mother is alive, as is her younger brother. I have no idea about her father, but from what I saw he wasn't present in their lives at all," said Naru uncomfortably.

Mukuro stared. If Mai still had living family...

"Then why..."

Why did she live alone in the house until Gene somehow dropped into it?

"Because for some reason, all memories of her in her mother's mind were erased. To the point her mother didn't even _recognize_ her at all, even when confronted with evidence. It was to the point she actually changed the locks and Mai had to break into her own house to get her things."

"And her brother?"

"From the looks he was giving her, I suspect he might have been the source," said Naru bluntly. "At the very least he _knew_ what was causing it, he was far too smug."

Mukuro looked at Mai with sympathy.

"That's not getting into the fact she was clearly being bullied rather horribly by her peers until she left her home town," said Gene upset. Seeing those other kids pick on Mai made him pissed off. She was the warmest, kindest person he knew and she had nearly been broken by a bunch of callous jerks!

"How on earth did she pay for that house then?"

"She stole her mother's bank seal and check book, and proceeded to withdraw a very large sum of money from the family account. Apparently there was a large inheritance from her father's side of the family that her mother rarely touched, enough to set herself up in another city far from home. Though she had help from the only person to actually _notice_ something was very wrong with her home life," said Naru.

Mukuro did have one question.

"I wonder why she had so many pay stubs from barely acceptable part time jobs when she has an inheritance to draw from."

"Probably so she could make a clean break from her family. It wouldn't take much for her 'mother' to hire a private investigator to find out who was using those funds and track her down and expose the issue," said Naru.

"So have you settled things in England?" asked Mukuro, changing the subject.

"This is going to be a permanent office of the group we belong to, and we're already arranging for a proper home since we're planning to stick around for more than a few months," said Naru. Their parents had been thrilled/amused that their sons had taken an interest in a girl...even if it was a bit odd that both of them had fallen for the same one.

It would either be an explosive confrontation, or an amusing story to tell of the twins sharing the same girl. So long as both parties were happy, they'd keep their silence on the matter.

Mai whimpered as the memories hit again, but calmed down when Gene rubbed her back. Almost like he was able to chase away the memory.

The boys all shared a look.

"I think it would be best if Mai stayed with you for a day or two. Those nightmares have been coming back every night since you left for England."

Gene winced. He couldn't really blame Mai for her abandonment issues, not after what they saw. He would have been more surprised if she _didn't_ have them.

* * *

Gene was openly amused, for many reasons. Namely the surreal double-takes that the team was giving him and Naru.

"Am I seeing things?" asked Monk.

"Unless you're seeing two Naru, one of which is actually dressed in colorful clothing, then no," said Ayako stunned.

John nodded in shock.

Mai snickered at them all.

"I suppose it is a bit weird, meeting Gene for the first time after being exposed to Naru's anti-social behavior," she laughed.

Ayako and Monk gave her an odd look.

"You don't seem surprised at all."

"That's because Gene is actually 'Yuu-chan'," she clarified. "He was crashing in my spare bedroom for _months_. And showing up during cases long before that."

"He's _Yuu-chan_?" said Ayako, jaw agape. "Where on earth did you come up with a nickname like that?!"

Gene snickered, which really messed with their heads. This was hilarious.

"Because my name is actually _Eugene_ , which sounds a lot like..."

"Yuujin," said Monk, shaking his head. He couldn't blame Mai for making a mistake like that. Then something occurred to him. "Wait... Eugene as in Eugene _Davis_?!"

He immediately honed in on Naru.

Mai snickered.

"Naru is Naru," said Mai, as if that settled the matter in mind. Which it probably did.

Monk openly groaned in dismayed shock.

"I've been working with Oliver Davis this whole time and didn't even know it..."

"And you were acting like a fan boy to an impostor while the real one was standing right next to you the entire time," said Mai, digging the knife in deeper.

"Hold on, if you two are the famous Davis twins, then why..."

Naru glared at Ayako in open annoyance.

"Do I look like I care for the publicity and nonsense that comes with being openly recognized that easily in our line of work? At the very least idiots would demand I demonstrate my abilities as 'proof' of my claim and it was annoying enough Ms. Hara saw fit to blackmail me with the fact she recognized who I was for those 'dates'," he said irritably.

The other three winced, while Mai and Gene nodded with sympathy. Naru preferred to work without those headaches, which he couldn't do if everyone knew who he was. He'd never get any peace, as idiots would come out of the woodwork demanding he demonstrate for them or try to impress him.

"So do we call you Oliver or..." asked John, speaking up for the first time.

"Naru is fine," he replied. It was a nickname he could live with, and it kept his real identity safe.

"So are you going to go back to England, or..." asked Monk.

"Actually we had a discussion with our parents, and they're fine with us operating out of the official branch office of the research group we belong to here in Japan. So we're going to be sticking around for a long time," said Gene. His eyes briefly glanced at Mai, too quick for her to notice, but Monk and Ayako did.

So the more social twin had a thing for Mai, and Mai clearly liked Naru. An interesting love triangle in the making.

Naturally Monk and Ayako had to learn more about Gene, if only to determine exactly how much entertainment was heading their way seeing the three way love triangle play out.

Mukuro wasn't even an option, as he looked at Mai more like an older sister or a surrogate mother, rather than in a romantic sense.

Gene was a rather mischievous guy... as evidenced by the fact he waited for the two adults to take a drink of something before dropping a rather shocking bomb.

"Well to be honest the idea of competing for Mai never even occurred to us. Naru finally admitted he likes her and he knows I would have stayed in Japan regardless of whether he joined me or not. We're just hoping Mai is open to the idea as well."

The two of them choked on their drinks while giving Gene a dirty look for laughing at them.

"You and Naru are open to the idea of _sharing_ a girl?!" said Monk in disbelief.

"We are twins, after all," shrugged Gene.

"Unbelievable," muttered Ayako, shaking her head.

Gene snickered.

"Isn't it a common fantasy for people to date twins?"

"For guys it is!" said Monk, almost shouting.

Ayako was suspiciously silent. Monk shot her a look.

"Oh come on, like a girl wouldn't dream of two hot guys occasionally! I mean look at him! If I had two boyfriends willing to share without being all annoying about it I'd jump on the idea in a heartbeat!" said Ayako blushing horribly. "I mean what do you think the yaoi industry thrives on? This would be a major turn on for girls who like that sort of thing!"

Monk looked grossed out at that, though whether it was from the fact Ayako admitted she wouldn't mind sharing someone like Naru and Gene, or from the yaoi comment.

Gene was just enjoying the light chaos he had sparked. This was hilarious.

And that wasn't getting into the scene they missed when Mai was crashing in their apartment for a few days!

 _Flashback..._

 _Mai looked around the condo rather impressed. For all of five seconds._

 _The idea of not sharing a home with Gene had set off a lot of insecurities she had hoped she had buried a long time ago._

 _So she was rather surprised when out of the blue, Naru hugged her._

" _Naru?"_

" _Did you really think we'd leave you after the visions you've been sending our way, even in England?"_

 _Mai paled as she realized what he was talking about. He had_ seen _them?!_

" _You were in so much pain we could feel it even past several wards and across multiple countries," nodded Gene. There was some sympathy, but there was a distinct lack of pity._

 _Mai couldn't speak. And then Naru did something that had her reeling from shock._

 _She had been content for_ months _to watch from afar and act as support. To let him keep their professional and friendly relationship, because if there was one thing she knew he had no idea how to handle it was actual romantic feelings for someone else._

 _Gene was the emotional one, not Naru._

 _So it was only natural she was too shocked to react when Naru kissed her on the lips._

 _Her face flushed a bright red, and that scene would replay over and over in her head for_ days _after that._

" _Just so we're clear Mai... we're not leaving you alone. Ever. So get used to us sticking around," said Naru, looking rather smug._

 _Gene's eyes glimmered with mischief as he stole a kiss as well._

 _"I've been waiting_ months _to do that!" he said happily, hugging her at the same time._

 _It was too much of an overload for her... she fainted on the spot from shock._

 _Any chance of her pretending it was just her imagination died the next morning, when Naru proceeded to fry her brain a second time with a kiss on the cheek._

 _Though he wouldn't show it in public, he had effectively declared his open interest in her as a girl, rather than just a mere employee._

 _Mai was more than happy to maintain a professional attitude outside...but when they were alone the barriers between them dropped._

 _Flashback end..._

Gene was in a very good mood after the impromptu lunch. Even if Lin rolled his eyes a bit.

Hey, it wasn't his fault he picked up a bit of a trolling habit from Mai~!

* * *

Mai was getting the mail when she saw familiar handwriting.

Open dread filled her soul, as she slowly opened the letter at the table.

 _He_ wouldn't be contacting her after all this time unless something major was happening back there, especially concerning her family. They had agreed to keep "emergency only" contact, unless the situation involving her mother's bizarre selective amnesia changed for the better.

" _Little dragon_

 _There is a carnivore in Namimori asking questions about your disappearance and about your brother's odd behavior. Your mother remains oblivious to the fact you exist, though the new carnivore in town seems determined to humiliate the false pack mate repeatedly._

 _If it looks like they might be getting close to your location, I will come myself to insure that you are not forced to endure more needless suffering from her condition._

 _Kyouya."_

Mai felt like sobbing. Why? Why after all this time was someone _finally_ taking notice of what happened?

Why now, when her life was finally starting to show a semblance of happiness and peace?

It took her a few moments to register Fuuta climbing into her lap and hugging her.

"It'll be okay, Mai-onee-san," he said.

"I really hope so. I really, really do," she said, hugging him back.

"Do you want me to check?" asked Fuuta. He didn't like seeing his big sister so unhappy.

Mai almost said no...but it might give her peace of mind if he did.

Fuuta connected to the "ranking planet".

There was still some major debates on whether or not there was in fact a "Ranking Planet", or if it was something the lonely boy had come up with to explain his clairvoyance. It was fifty-fifty, but Naru was willing to humor Fuuta since it was rather harmless.

Fuuta came out of it with an odd look.

"Mai-nee... whatever is coming has a really high probability of finding you."

Mai couldn't help but feel dread at that statement.

She wasn't moving back to Namimori though. No way in hell.


	9. Chapter 9

Masako nearly had a heart attack when she met Gene...mostly because Naru was off on a quiet date with Mai (with Mukuro acting as chaperon/deterrent for their co-workers) and he was alone in the office playing cat's cradle with Fuuta.

The mere fact he was openly smiling was enough to make her almost faint.

"Naru?"

Gene blinked and turned to face the shocked medium.

"Naru's out of the office. Did you need something or have a real case?" he asked.

"If you're not Naru, then..."

Gene grinned.

"I believe Mai called me 'Yuu-chan' a few times before. I know she mentioned me to the team."

Masako stared at him in disbelief.

"You're 'Yuu-chan'?" she said in shock. He looked identical to Naru, minus a few things...like the fact he wasn't wearing all black.

Though Gene had tricked Naru into wearing a dark violet shirt for his date. Mai certainly seemed to like the color on him.

"Well it's not entirely Mai's fault that my name happens to sound very similar to the Japanese word for 'friend'. I'm Eugene, Naru's much friendlier brother."

Seeing the brief hope spark in Masako's eyes, Gene was quick to give that potential for disaster a painless death.

"Before you say anything, I am really not happy you blackmailed Noll into those fake dates and I've been staying with Mai for months. To say nothing of the fact that I've been helping her develop her powers since the first case she helped on."

Translation: You may have gotten away with bothering Naru for fake dates, but he wasn't going to let her silly crush transfer to him instead. Oh, and he liked Mai better.

Masako huffed.

"I wonder how the others will react if they knew who he really was."

Gene almost glared at her.

"Actually Monk was rather annoyed Noll didn't say anything when you were dealing with that fake. Especially when he figured out what our real names were when I introduced myself."

The fact he continued to treat Noll as "Naru" rather than the famous Oliver Davis won him a _lot_ of brownie points with his brother. It was hard to act like a fan boy when you had been working so closely with the person you admired enough to know their faults.

It didn't hurt that Gene dropped the bomb that the Davis twins were willing to _share_ the same girl the same day.

"What?" said Masako in shock.

"Monk and the others figured out who Noll was, and they agreed to keep their silence. Like Mai said when they found out... Naru is Naru. They could understand his desire to do his job without having to prove he's the real thing since he's so famous in the psychic community," shrugged Gene.

Masako realized her only 'leverage' on Naru, or rather Oliver Davis, had crumbled into dust.

Though it would only be later that she realized that if she actually cared for him as a friend, she wouldn't have used such underhanded tactics to force him into situations he hated in the first place.

Masako left without a word, obviously shaken by the encounter...and more than a little miffed that Mai had succeeded where she had failed.

Gene was already texting Mai and Noll about the incident. Hopefully Masako would finally drop her silly crush on his brother at last.

He was just glad he got to see Mai in that dress before they left. That and she had easily accepted the idea of sharing the two of them.

To be honest, she had dreaded the day she'd have to chose one of them over the other. So the idea of sharing was a welcome one, even if it was going to take a while to work out the kinks.

Namely which areas would actually hold Naru's interest, since she had no desire to drag him to the same areas Masako had and dredge up bad memories of those fake dates.

Gene was easily. Unlike Naru he _enjoyed_ crowds and movies. The last date they had was to an amusement park, where they had a lot of fun spending the day.

Ayako had a lot of fun helping Mai update her wardrobe. She was such a tiny thing that most of her clothes from middle school still fit, and she didn't really _shop_ for things like that much.

At least, not until Gene and the others started living with her. Though Gene was staying with his brother now. After the way he disappeared, Naru was forcing his twin to share a room with him, though they had separate beds.

* * *

Mai had a headache, and it's name was Dino Cavallone, tenth boss of the Cavallone Familigia in Italy.

"Explain to me why you came here and specifically asked to see the legal guardian of Fuuta de la Stella. If you try anything like the last bunch of idiots who attempted to kidnap him for his gifts then Mukuro has free reign to do what he wants with you. And he _hates_ mafioso."

Mukuro took the role as the part-time bodyguard of the Ranking Prince with great glee.

Mainly because anyone stupid enough to try and take him from Mai's custody by force was going to end up very dead in short order, with her full blessing so long as Fuuta didn't see what he did with the idiots.

"I want to pay the Ranking... I mean _Fuuta_ for his help clearing out people who don't care about civilian casualties. They've been passing out guns to people who really don't need them and there are a lot of unnecessary funerals because of it."

Mai stared at him, gauging his words. He was telling the truth.

"Help how?"

"I need a ranking of their strongest fighters. That's all," said Dino quickly. He looked green at the idea of having a child help fight.

Mai once again tested it against her personal bullshit meter. He came up clean, for a mafioso.

"Fine, I can take you to the office where Fuuta spends most of the day. We generally don't mess with the whole 'ranking' thing since Naru's been trying to train Fuuta out of levitating everything when he uses his clairvoyance," said Mai. Then she pointed a finger at Dino, surprising him. "But! You can't bring a ton of people with you. I'll allow one or two, but that's it!"

Dino stared at her for a second, before he started chuckling.

"Fair enough."

Naru certainly didn't like it, but he agreed to stay silent since Fuuta wasn't surprised in the least by the request. At least this person was _polite_ about it and hadn't tried to outright kidnap him. Again.

Fuuta wrote down the rankings and handed it to Dino, who gently ruffled his hair.

"Thanks."

It was as he was leaving that he left a rather odd and cryptic message for Mai and the others.

"You know you should really train your Flames. Either that or learn to hide them, otherwise a lot of people will be after you and your Guardians," he commented.

"...What?" she said baffled.

Dino stared at her.

"Your Dying Will Flames. They're leaking all over the place and I could sense you halfway from the house and that was before my men told me you were almost there," said Dino. "And while I can tell your Guardians are powerful, the only one who looks like he has any idea how to use them properly is your Mist with the duo-colored eyes."

Mai looked completely baffled at the comment. Naru wasn't much better.

Though she had no idea that the one visit from the Cavallone don would lead to her old life catching up to her that much sooner. Or that she would have a confrontation with someone she would rather avoid.

* * *

Fon was on a rather unusual mission and since there was minimal risk of actual fighting, he was bringing his apprentice with him.

Kyouya had a friend, or at the very least an ally, who had asked him to keep an eye on a rather large mess in Namimori for her while she set up shop in another district entirely.

Kyouya had been...annoyed...to say the least that one of his small animals had to flee his territory because of something he had failed to account for. To be fair, Kyouya had never come across a Mist as cold as this before.

Fon's face frowned slightly.

His colleague Reborn had been called in to train the Decimo candidate, only to discover that he was missing several pieces of vital information.

Namely that the "heir" in question wasn't qualified to take the Decimo title in the first place. It wasn't the bloodline that was the problem, but their flames.

A Mist could not hold together the familigia, especially one that didn't give a damn about family, blood related or not.

Reborn had been properly horrified upon learning his new "student" had deliberately and knowingly erased the memory of his older sister, the true heir of the Vongola who had been sealed when she was a child. The girl had done the smart thing and left town, rather than stay in such a caustic environment. And she had done so with help, which left her practically untraceable by Reborn's sources.

Not surprising, considering Fon had been among those who helped the poor girl create a new identity.

Which was exactly where he was heading. He was one of three individuals who knew the new identity of the missing girl.

He had Lichi knock on the door, and once Mai adjusted where she was looking her face brightened.

"Fon-san! What brings you here, and with such an adorable apprentice to boot?"

I-Pin blushed, and tried to hide behind Fon. She wasn't entirely successful considering she was slightly bigger than he was.

"Hello again, Mai-chan. Mind if we come in?"

He noticed there was a distinct difference in her aura. She was much happier and he realized she was the source of all the Flames he had been sensing since he entered the neighborhood.

It didn't surprise him in the least to find that she was a powerful Sky. She _was_ a Vongola after all, though in this instance he didn't think she was doing this deliberately. She was civilian raised, so odds were she had no idea what Flames even were.

Then he spotted several people he certainly didn't expect to see. Mukuro Rokudo and his two minions _and_ the missing Ranking Prince. Who apparently wasn't missing at all. He looked rather content and at home in this place.

Mukuro took one look at him and stiffened.

"Arcobaleno," he hissed. He winced at the look Mai shot him.

"Fon is a friend of mine, through someone who helped me leave a bad situation. So behave or I'll have Chikusa and Ken deal with the next batch of idiots and force you to babysit Gene."

"You wouldn't dare!" he glared at her.

"Try me."

Mukuro actually pouted. It wasn't that he _hated_ Gene, but more that the idiot always seemed to be so damn cheerful.

Fon stared at Mukuro for a long moment.

"You know about the mafia."

"I know it _exists_ , but that's as far as my interest goes," agreed Mai. "So long as you don't bring your 'work' here, you're welcome to stay as long as you like. It's not like it has anything to do with me."

Fon debated his choices, but considering _Reborn_ had been sent to train the Decimo heir... it was probably best to warn her now.

"Quite the opposite, in fact. Especially since you're leaking pure Sky Flames of unusual purity. I'm surprised the Vindice haven't come by to warn you already."

"I think the Vindice were more surprised to have a mere _civilian_ tell them off about arresting me for defending the Ranking Prince from the Todd familigia, on top of telling them that they legally had nothing to hold us on considering why I killed off those two familigias," said Mukuro dryly, sipping coffee.

Fon looked at him hard.

"What."

"They showed up after I dealt with the Todd familigia goons trying to reclaim Fuuta, and Mai told me to get rid of them while leaving the methods up to me. They showed up immediately after and Mai came out and told them to back off, considering they had nothing to hold me on. The first two familigias I took out were allowed on the grounds of self defense and the fact I wasn't mentally culpable since we were taken in by yet another mafia family after just escaping one who tortured and experimented on us. As for the goons... well, I was following orders," said Mukuro matter-of-fact.

According to Jager, the Vindice who arrived a month later to inform Mukuro that they wouldn't arrest him "for now", but that any further infractions would drag him, his minions and his Sky into a very long stay in Vindicare.

He was just happy that he was free and clear of his so-called crimes, and that Mai didn't mind taking them in. It was the closest thing to home they had ever had, and they weren't going to mess it up.

Fon rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"You've really stepped into a mess now Mai. Any chance of arguing your civilian status to the Cosa Nostra died with that stunt. Especially since I'm only assuming you took legal custody of the Ranking Prince as well."

"It's not like she was born into it, right?" joked Ken.

Dead silence.

"Right?" he almost pleaded. He didn't want to go back to that world.

"I'm afraid it's worse. A colleague of mine with a similar condition has been sent specifically to train the next heir of the Vongola familigia since their last one died. Right now he's playing with your younger brother, but he is actively looking for you. It's only because we hid your tracks so thoroughly that he hasn't found you yet."

Mai groaned and lightly banged her head against the table.

"I am _not_ moving back to Namimori. My life is here and if he doesn't like it then he can move," she said flatly. She wasn't leaving SPR, her friends or her home just because another "baby" demanded she return.

That girl died the day she left that town at the tender age of fourteen.

Fon's frown was more pronounced.

"Considering the mess _he_ created with that stunt of his, it's highly likely he'd simply move into here rather than force you back. Especially since we still can't find a way to reverse what he did. In any case, it seems I'll be staying here a while. I could feel your Flames long before I even reached the house. It's a miracle no one else has picked up on it."

"Someone already _did_. The don of the Cavallone familigia showed up to buy rankings from Fuuta two weeks ago and commented on how he could sense Mai long before he actually saw her," said Mukuro dryly.

Fon had a pained look on his face.

"Then expect Reborn to show up even sooner, because I have no doubt Dino will mention seeing you here when he inevitably visits his old tutor," said Fon.

I-Pin tugged her teacher's sleeve. She said something low in Chinese.

Mai had a look of sympathy on her face.

"The bathroom is down the hall and to the left," she replied. Fon translated, before he gave her an odd look.

"Since when do you speak Chinese?"

"I don't. But there are some facial expressions that are almost universal," she replied. She looked to Chikusa. "Could you grab some of the square pillows from the closet, at least six of them? That way they can eat and not have to suffer the indignity of a baby chair."

Chikusa nodded, as silent as ever. Mai was one of the few people who could translate what he was trying to say without having him to speak. And she let him get away with not talking for days at a time, and even introduced him to Lin. The two of them got along rather well, to the point Lin was teaching Chikusa how to operate and maintain their equipment.

I-Pin seemed to warm up considerably during dinner. The home didn't seem as intimidating as it had when she arrived, especially since the nice older girl who owned it treated her teacher with more respect than most did.


	10. Chapter 10

**Just a reminder that I do have a go fund me page. Just add _tsukis-vet-visit_ after the .com part. It's alright if you can't donate today...sharing helps as well!**

* * *

It started with a simple phone call. One that would amuse quite a few people for ages.

"Hey Naru, the grandfather of a friend of mine is visiting and wanted to visit the office. He seemed particularly interested in meeting Lin-san," said Mai.

Fon only had to hear the words "trained omnyouji and good at Qigong" before he decided he wanted to visit the office to have a little chat. From what little Mai knew, this "Lin Koujou" was quite skilled. Enough that he had five shiki with him.

Mai tilted her head.

"Actually my friend's grandfather is pure Chinese. He has some experience with Qigong, and I vaguely recall you mentioning you practiced it too so he wanted to see if you were telling the truth."

Fon listened to half the conversation with open amusement. This was going to be _hilarious_ , because if this Lin really did teach Naru Qigong there was no way he wouldn't recognize Fon on sight. After all, Grandmasters of those sort of arts were rather famous. Especially in this day and age when such things were more for sport, rather than serious study.

 _Half an hour later..._

Naru was suddenly glad for Mai and Mukuro's habit of collecting blackmail, because there was no way Lin would ever admit to _fainting_ the day he met Fon Xiao Long.

He'd never find all the pictures, though he certainly _tried_.

Fon was openly amused at the fact the Onmyouji fainted upon meeting him. When Mai told him she was a ghost hunter/paranormal researcher, he had thought she meant the occult club or something.

He hadn't expected to run into Oliver and Eugene Davis of all people, much less a fan boy of his.

He was torn between out and out laughing his ass off upon learning what Mai's job was...or trying (and possibly failing) to keep up his usual serene smile.

Either way at least he wouldn't be bored while he was staying with Mai and her new family. He hadn't seen I-Pin this happy, especially when Mai didn't even bat an eye at her gift, but rather hugged the stuffing out of her. That, or the fact that Mai had bought I-Pin the stuffed dragon toy she had been eyeing since they entered the store. The Charizard doll (while he never got into the Pokémon franchise he could at least recognize some of them) was bigger than she was and she loved it immediately.

Fon settled for chuckling as Mai gently woke Lin up from his faint.

"I will be wanting copies of that, you realize."

"Of course," said Mukuro, chortling. That was _hilarious_. He'd never thought he'd see LIN of all people faint upon meeting an Arcobaleno.

"Why did he faint?" asked Gene.

Fon chuckled.

"Before I was cursed, I became a renowned Taoist and Qigong Grandmaster. Though these days only those truly dedicated to mastering the old arts would recognize my name and features."

"A curse?" said Naru intrigued.

Fon lifted his pacifier a little from his neck. He couldn't remove it, but he could at least shift it around.

"I and seven others were hit with a particularly unpleasant curse, one that we have yet to find the cure for. I'm actually older than Lin is," said Fon. "Though none of my skills have deteriorated in the least."

"...And you said you were going to be staying at Mai's for the moment?"

"I'm afraid her situation has become _very_ complicated, and things would go a lot smoother if she had my intervention in the matter," Fon replied.

Gene and Naru suddenly became serious.

"Complicated how?"

"It involves why she left her home town and family behind."

Seeing the two wince, he could only guessed they had accidentally 'read' why Mai was living on her own until recently.

"In any case, it has been some time since I was able to exercise my other abilities, so I will help if I can on any cases that come your way," said Fon almost cheerfully.

Really, this was going to be more like an unexpected vacation for him than actual work. It had been far too long since he was able to act as a Taoist rather than an enforcer or a hit man. The novelty of that fact alone was making him rather pleased.

* * *

"Am I seeing things again, or is Lin actually acting like he's having a fan boy moment with a toddler?" asked Monk a few days later. Naru had called them in for a new case.

"It's not you," said Ayako.

"Don't mind Lin. He's still in shock I knew Fon," said Mai amused.

Monk stared at the 'toddler' in absolute shock.

"Fon as in Fon Xiao Long, the famous Taoist from China? A man who supposedly mastered over a hundred different martial arts styles including the ancient art of Qigong? Someone who's supposed to be well into his fifties at least?!"

Fon smiled serenely at him, though he was clearly amused.

"It's so nice to actually be appreciated for my skills rather than the curse I'm stuck with," he said.

It really was a nice change of pace. He was being acknowledge for his mastery of the ancient arts, rather than just as the Strongest Storm or his infamy as a professional hit man and known outlier of the Triads.

Fon wasn't the only one who grew to _loathe_ the title Arcobaleno. It was like all their accomplishments died the day they were cursed with their pacifiers.

Monk gave Mai an exasperated look.

"You really don't care about fame, do you?"

"Should I?" asked Mai, honestly confused. Fon was Fon and Naru was Naru. She really couldn't care less after that. "I mean wouldn't it get tiring having people pretend they know you just because you're famous for something and demand all sorts of things as a result? Look at what happened to Naru... we had to deal with that idiot impostor simply because he's famous under his real name."

Monk and the others winced at the reminder of that mess.

"So what exactly is the case we have this time?" asked Monk.

"There's a building that's supposedly infested with spirits. From what little we've gotten of the location, it's possible that there's a medium who has no idea of their abilities, or a haunted room. Considering there aren't any reports of strange or violent deaths in the area, it's more likely a medium," said Mai, reading what the client told them.

"Thank the gods, a normal case for once," said Monk in relief.

He would come to regret saying those words. He would regret them a lot, especially when they found out what the source was.

Masako was currently busy with her job in another area of Japan, to the open relief of Naru and Mai. Then again, they didn't really _need_ her considering they had two mediums on the permanent staff already in the form of Mukuro and Gene.

Gene might be friendlier and a lot more open about his feelings than his brother, but he didn't have the same problem with treating spirits like they were still alive that Masako did.

Mukuro didn't care, so long as he got them to leave him the hell alone. Just because he could see and channel spirits didn't mean he wanted to.

The second they stepped foot into the building, Mukuro's sixth sense went into overdrive.

"What is it?" asked Mai seriously. Even she could tell there was something _wrong_ in this building.

"There's someone here. Someone very much like me..." said Mukuro ominously. His eyes narrowed. "But I have the feeling this case is going to get complicated very quickly."

Mai's own feelings were telling her the same thing. In fact, she had a hunch she'd end up with yet another person living in her home.

It was a good thing this case was several towns over, though she wished it weren't so close to Namimori. Fon's training had helped reign in her "Flames", though even had seemed surprised at how instinctively she seemed to get the hang of using them. She had the feeling it was going to work out for the best when this case was over.

The woman who hired them was someone very rich, somewhat pretty...and immediately angered Mai for reasons she couldn't openly explain. At least until she saw how the "nice" woman barked at a girl at least Mai's age (or possibly a year younger, it was hard to tell with how tiny she was), to leave the room.

Mai was a very sneaky girl. She managed to get alone with the medium causing the problems with help from Mukuro.

"Hello, I'm Mai. What's your name?"

"N-Nagi..." she said with a timid squeak.

"I've dealt with the mother. She'll see only what she wants to see while Naru keeps the others busy," said Mukuro.

Naru didn't even need to be told that this was less a case of dispelling spirits and more of a rescue mission. Anyone with eyes could see the poor girl was being abused and mistreated...likely because of her gifts. Her mother could care less for her daughter.

Mai could relate, unfortunately.

Mai gave Nagi a gentle hug, and like a dam breaking the girl began sobbing into her shoulder. It was clear she had been hurting for a very long time and no one even cared to help.

"There, there... it's alright. We're not going to leave you with her anymore," said Mai, rubbing the girl's back.

"Do you have anywhere else to go?" asked Mukuro bluntly.

Nagi quickly shook her head. She would have left a long time ago if she did, never mind that she was still a minor. She had no idea how she was supposed to get out of this place, never mind live on her own. And her confidence was shot to hell because of her "mother".

"Good thing my room has a king sized bed," commented Mai. Nagi looked at her confused. "Do you have any objections to leaving here and never coming back?"

Nagi shook her head again. This place wasn't home.

Mai smiled at her, and for the first time she felt like everything would be alright. That she wouldn't suffer again. Nagi hugged the older girl a little tighter.

"Mukuro, can you deal with her mother? I'd like to avoid an investigation if we can. Maybe arrange a custody transfer or something?"

"On it," he said.

There was no way the woman would be allowed to keep the girl. Not when Mai had so obviously claimed her as her own.

Fon had opted to stay behind with the children, mostly to keep Ken from ruining yet another microwave. With Gene living with Naru and having gone with them on this case, they needed someone to keep Ken in line. Besides, he was already spreading out 'feelers' so he would have forewarning when Dino eventually alerted Reborn where the missing girl was, if only by accident.

Reborn thrived on chaos, but Mai would need a united front against the Sun. At the very least he might try to relocate her mother and younger brother to the area, which would be a total disaster in the making.

The _only_ reason the brat hadn't been sealed yet was because they had no idea where his sister (a confirmed Sky) was. After that he was spare blood as far as the Vongola were concerned.

Less than that, considering the damage he caused with his Flames.

Nagi was holding Mai like a lifeline while Mukuro more or less convinced the rather irritating woman to hand over her daughter to perfect strangers.

The fact she did so with only minimal suggestion towards the idea really didn't speak well about her.

 _An hour later..._

"Please tell me we don't have to haul our equipment up here," he asked with a groan.

"Not really. A general cleansing of the area should deal with the problem," said Gene.

"And what if they come back?" asked Ayako crossly. The neighbors were less than friendly, and all of them pointed at the same girl.

Nagi flinched, and Mai ignored the fact the younger girl was hiding behind her.

"That shouldn't be a problem. After all, the medium who accidentally caused this won't be living here anymore. Though we should probably stick around a few days for the paperwork to go through."

"Paperwork?" said John baffled.

"Emancipated and already legal guardian of an almost ten-year-old," said Mai, pointing at herself, before pulling Nagi into view. "Minor with a parent who had no objections signing custody over to perfect strangers."

Nagi winced at the reminder, though relaxed when Mai hugged her.

Monk, Ayako and John all winced at the implications of that.

"So she's coming with us?" asked Monk.

"Like I said, once the paperwork goes through the problem is over with. It's not like Mukuro can't get her caught up on the basics," said Mai simply. "I'm sure I could get her registered at my school, since she's about my age anyway."

Monk made a pained sound.

"You have the weirdest ability to collect strays I've ever seen," he said flatly.

"Ayako, would you mind giving her a check up once we get back to the hotel room? I have the feeling she's going to need one."

"How are you going to deal with her mother? I doubt she's going to let the fact her daughter's spending the night away from home well."

"If the cops ask, then we're having a sleep over and her mother is being overly paranoid," deadpanned Mai. "And I highly doubt it's going to be an issue in the first place."

She had Mukuro leaving a double of Nagi in the home just to be safe.

By the next morning the paperwork cleared with almost frightening speed and Nagi was safely secured between Mai and Mukuro on their way back to Tokyo. She was still reeling from the sudden change in her life and would need a few days to adjust.

Mostly because of the fact that she would never have to endure one of her mother's mood swings again, and actually had a _family_ that wanted her.

Though Mai did have a discreet laugh at Mukuro's expense when Nagi (who took the name Chrome Dokuro much like Mai had changed hers to throw off anyone trying to bring her back) developed a serious crush on the older medium.

Mukuro tolerated it with gentle amusement, though even he would admit to developing a fondness for the younger girl. Even if she did look a _lot_ like a younger, female version of him.

Chrome certainly didn't have any objections to sharing Mai's room, and she had the only king-sized bed in the house. Mostly because Mai had promptly taken over the master bedroom the day she bought the place.


	11. Chapter 11

Reborn's inevitable discovery of where the older Sawada child had vanished to coincided with the first actual case Fon joined the SPR on. Though this time Mai had decided that it was easier to put Chikusa or Fuuta in charge of microwaving _anything,_ since Ken had an annoying habit of forgetting that the appliance did not like metal. They were also allowed to order out for food, since Mai hadn't exactly let the remaining money she had from when she left home sit idling in her lone bank account.

Mai had the weirdest luck when it came to the stock market for some reason. She didn't even know what she was doing the first time her account manager suggested it, she just let her gut tell her which ones to buy and sell.

(It had only taken three months for her ability to result in her account manager following her lead and earning a lot of money in a short amount of time. As a result she was growing quite a comfortable nest egg to live off of, though she still used the money she got from her job. Most of the cash _was_ tied up, after all.)

Needless to say Reborn was _very_ surprised to find a Chinese assassin apprenticed out to Fon and two former criminals living in the same address that Dino had said the Ranking Prince could be found, along with a girl who looked almost _identical_ to the missing Sawada girl.

They had no idea when the group would be back, only that it would be at least a week or two. That was generally how long the 'interesting' cases lasted.

Mai looked at her phone and promptly handed it over to Fon.

"It would seem Dino informed Reborn where you are," he said, reading the text Chikusa had sent.

"Not like we didn't expect that to happen," said Mai tiredly. She was leaning against Gene a little, almost about to fall asleep. Beside her, Chrome hadn't bothered to try and fight that urge...she was particularly clingy around Mai, though the older girl didn't blame her one bit. She had been the same when she left home for good. Chrome was lightly snoring against Mai's shoulder, barely even registering the occasional bumps on the road.

They had to buy an extra car to handle the additions to the office. Naru felt like he _should_ complain, but Mai's ducklings (as Gene had jokingly called them, and the name had _stuck_ ) were more likely than not to be in the office next door which had been promptly rented upon his return to Japan and now stored the extra equipment. And at Mai's prompting, was turned into a storage/cafe area for their team to hang out in between cases. It meant he could enjoy the peace and quiet while having the group close.

Mukuro and Gene tended to spend most of the day practicing their illusions (and hadn't that come as a shock, seeing his brother create _illusions_ of all things) and psychic abilities. The two of them generally flipped on who went to pick Fuuta up from the school Mai had enrolled him in.

Naru had cleared him for that much, since he did seem to have _some_ control over his abilities that he could go most of the day without revealing them.

One of the big rules of the house was that someone had to pick Fuuta up _every school day_ , without exception. Mostly to keep him from being kidnapped without anyone knowing. At this point Gene was competent enough that he could escape with Fuuta in tow through his Mist Portal, which was the proper name for the weird vortex Gene could create.

That he could pull it off entirely untrained meant he had a _lot_ of potential, since the only other Mist Fon knew that could do it found it very tiring and trained for years to learn how.

Fon was a bit surprised that between the Davis twins, they had every Flame save for Sky covered. It made him wonder if they could create the coveted seventh Flame if they combined their Flames together into one, and if so whether or not they could obtain Guardians of their own.

As it was, both of them had long since harmonized with Mai's rather impressive Sky, even if she did have an odd inclination to Mists for some reason.

Fon was inclined to believe that had more to do with the fact Mai had clearly developed psychic powers in response to the fact that her natural ones had been sealed for a very long time in self defense. That plus the stress of having to defend against the mess that was _still_ waiting in Namimori if she ever dared to go home.

Which considering what she would have to deal with if she did, wasn't very likely. At all.

"So any idea what we're dealing with?" asked Fon, changing the subject.

"No idea. All we do know is that whatever it is, it's openly targeting kids," said Mai. She handed him the file, and he skimmed through it. He seemed downright _cheerful_ about the whole thing, even though he had mostly joined in because Mai would obviously be going. At least Lin and Monk's hero worship had died down enough that they could work with the cursed Taoist and not look like idiots.

Which was more of a problem for Monk than Lin, but it still needed to be said.

From what Mai had gathered during Fon's explanation, it had a lot to do with the fact he was acting as a member of a group that had nothing to do with the mafia, killing people, or his status as "Arcobaleno" in general, while at the same time doing some good. That and the fact none of the team had yet to treat him like a child, but as an adult who had the misfortune to be stuck looking like a toddler.

The fact he proceeded to carry several pieces of the rather heavy equipment into the van downstairs had nothing to do with putting the fact that he was just cursed, not actually a toddler, into their minds. Nope, not a bit.

It made Mai snicker evilly at the fact she could get Fon to help her trolling addiction by screwing with people who thought they could treat him like a child.

Fon had taken one look at her collection of blackmail before saying she'd get along terrifyingly well with Reborn and someone called Viper. Reborn for the chaos, and Viper because Mai wasn't above selling the blackmail photos to her victims.

Not that he didn't have a laugh of his own when he realized what she had in mind. There was a reason he got along with Reborn after all.

The two sat in friendly silence, before Mai gave up trying to stay awake and ended up using Gene's shoulder as a pillow, much like Chrome was using hers. It was a six-hour drive to the location, so a little nap could be forgiven.

Gene looked rather amused and Naru looked slightly annoyed while he rolled his eyes. It didn't help that Fon had elected to take a nap of his own in Mai's lap, taking full advantage of his smaller than normal size.

At least he wasn't as bad as Reborn. He liked to freak people out by sleeping with his eyes open.

* * *

The Yoshimi house was in a rather beautiful location, but the second Fon woke up and stepped onto the earth he openly frowned.

"It has been a long time since I sensed something like this," he said quietly. In order to avoid being left behind, he was using Chrome as a way to get around. Mostly by sitting on her shoulder. She didn't seem to mind much.

"Something like this?" she inquired.

"Divine energy. It's faint, almost fading, but there is clearly something that has been worshiped for a very long time nearby...enough that it acquired a divine aura," replied Fon.

Lin paused in what he was doing.

"Are you certain?" he asked frowning.

Fon's smile remained as mysterious as ever.

"As I have said, it has been some time since I felt this sort of aura. At the very least I could be picking up from a local shrine of a minor god that just happens to be close enough to allow the natural blessing to be shared onto the house as well."

Lin nodded in acknowledgment.

If the clients thought it strange to have a 'child' with them, they thankfully kept their silence on the matter. Chrome sat behind Mai and to the right while Mukuro did the same to her left side. Fon firmly sat in Chrome's lap, mostly so she had some support. He was playing off his appearance for as long as he could.

It wasn't the first time he had done so, especially around civilians. Most mafioso had enough sense to know that "colored pacifier" meant trouble far out of their league.

Fon was openly frowning at the number of casualties. The number of dead was far too high for this to be a simple curse, especially since he didn't sense any malicious intent towards the family _specifically,_ let alone the team. At the very least Mai would have picked up on it if there was one.

(One demonstration of Mai's ability to detect a problem, which seemed to be a mixture of the famed Vongola Hyper Intuition and her own psychic ability to sense trouble, was enough for him to believe in her warnings.)

* * *

 _Later that night..._

If Fon were concerned about the previous number of dead, it was nothing compared to the way the house seemed to _surge_ while Mai was showing Chrome how to set up the cameras. The little Mist seemed to use Mai as a safety net of sorts.

Understandable, considering the situation Mai had removed her from. That and this was her first _official_ case as a junior member of SPR. She was more of a back up medium in the event Mukuro and Gene were busy.

Everyone rushed to the sound of screaming, though Fon was the quickest to get there.

Within seconds he subdued the possessed man using quick jabs at pressure points to knock him out cold safely. Lin managed to catch him before he crashed onto the floor, the knife falling to the ground. Ayako checked his pulse.

"He's breathing. What was that?" she asked Fon.

"Pressure points," he replied. "Since we have no idea what the possessing spirit _is_ , it would be rather difficult for me to remove it. Knocking him out seemed like a safer alternative for the moment."

Mai had a bad feeling about this. One that only got worse when Ayako elected to remove the spirit from Eijirou.

She only saw a vague shadow of a fox-like figure that was heading straight for Naru.

Mai didn't even think, let alone hesitate. She shoved Naru to the ground as the fox went to possess him instead.

"Mai!" yelped the majority of the room, including Fon.

"Ow..."

Mai unashamedly leaned on Gene the entire walk back to base. She felt...off. Fon was frowning openly while he was on Chrome's shoulder, as if he could sense something.

"How are you feeling?" asked Ayako, putting a hand on Mai's forehead.

Her yelp of pain alerted the others.

"She's burning up!" said Ayako, staring while she held her hand gingerly.

Fon swore.

"Everyone, get away from her _now_!" he barked. Most didn't hesitate, though Naru, Gene, Mukuro and Chrome did. Likely because of the strong Guardian bond they had with Mai, which instinctively demanded that they do something to help.

Mai practically blacked out in her seat, and a great dragon of fire seemed to surround her. In it's jaws was the same fox that had tried to possess her. It looked pissed, and was actively trying to _eat_ the possessing spirit.

With an almost sickening _crunch_ , the fox screamed as it burned up in orange fire. The dragon seemed to curl around back into Mai, who was still out cold.

"What in the god's name was _that_?!" said Monk, shocked.

Naru was staring.

"That dragon we saw in Rokuryo was _Mai_?" he said in shock. Lin stared, obviously remembering that incident.

"This happened before?" asked Fon sharply.

Naru nodded, obviously shaken.

"There was an incident in a school involving a spiritual kodoku. Mai was locked up in a lab with a gas leak and broken jars with formalin. The windows on the side of the building where the lab was located were all shattered from an intense heat and we have a recording of a massive dragon made of orange flames rushing past them right before that," said Naru.

Fon had a lot of questions about that, but he now had a general idea of when Mai awakened her Flames. Either that, or broke through a possible seal on her Flames. Considering she had felt like a cross between Latent and Active the first time he met her, he was betting on a seal being involved. A rather poor one, considering it did nothing for Sky Attraction.

"Is she alright?" asked Gene, openly concerned.

Fon went up to check. Her temperature was high, but that was normal for a Flame user. Especially after an attack.

"She just needs to rest a bit. She should be fine by morning with some sleep."

"...And that dragon?" asked Ayako, still staring.

"A self defense mechanism against spirits. Though it seems hers is a bit more developed than most, likely as a response to why she moved to Tokyo in the first place."

Her spiritual sense might have developed in response to what happened in Namimori, or at least partially awakened from it. The fact it developed a distinct form was a side effect from developing her psychic powers ever since she met Naru.

It also meant she might have the ability to use some of his more...advanced...Flame attacks. Like his Storm dragons, because the one she created out of instinct was _very_ similar.

He made a mental note to check, and if that was the case he was going to be rubbing it in Reborn's face for _years_.

* * *

 _The next morning..._

Mai felt slightly exhausted, which was normal considering what happened last night. Though it didn't help that she had two visions.

"Mmm...Mai-nee?" said Chrome.

"Couldn't sleep?" asked Mai. Chrome had curled up against her the first chance she had...with Fon doing the same on top of the blankets. He seemed to be using the residual heat Mai had a habit of giving off.

"Weird dreams."

"Well you are one of her Mists. It's possible you're picking up on the same signal she is," said Fon.

"Signal?" asked Chrome.

"Spirits have a certain frequency they use. Most people wouldn't see anything, but people with an affinity for them can pick up on residual memories and visions," said Mai.

At least that was how Naru had explained it to her.

Seeing Chrome didn't get it, Fon explained it in a simpler way.

"Imagine that you're a radio," said Fon. "Most people when they go between 'stations' hear nothing but white noise and static. However people like you and Mai have a stronger 'antenna', and so you hear a broader range of frequencies."

Chrome perked up. That made a lot more sense.

"From what Gene told me, my ability to 'transmit' was being blocked until that case in Rokuryo. Afterwards once it settled properly, my ability to 'send' and 'receive' got a boost, so I 'hear' a larger range than before," said Mai. "It's also how he was able to track me down, though I still don't know how he managed to land face first on my living room floor."

"Odds are he used your home as the anchoring point for his Mist Portal and allowed himself to fall from wherever he was at."

"How was I able to see Mai's dream then?" asked Chrome.

"You're one of her bonded Mists, and you were lying right next to her. You 'resonate' with her to the point you were able to pick up on the frequency she was on at the time enough to see it," said Fon.

Chrome perked up at that explanation...and giggled when Mai's stomach let out a loud sound of protest.

She was _starving_.


	12. Chapter 12

Ayako was giving Mai a thorough check up.

"Your temperature is a little high, but otherwise you look fine," she said.

"That's actually normal. If you were to check Mukuro when he's actively using his illusions you'll find he's running a higher than normal temperature," commented Fon.

"Really?" said Mai.

Fon hid a smile behind his sleeve.

Ayako turned to said illusionist. Mukuro looked annoyed.

"Chrome has the same abilities I do, though considerably less control. If you're really that interested, have her do it."

Chrome looked nervous, but made an illusion of a little kitten. Ayako knew what her general temperature was after she was officially adopted by Mai (something that still threw her for a loop... a teenager adopting other teens as if that was _normal_ for her...) so when she checked the girl's temp again after taking the usual baseline, her eyebrows shot up in shock.

"It's at least five degrees higher."

"Like I said, it's normal for our body temperatures to go up higher when our powers are active," said Fon. "The better we are at it, the less we even notice things like the cold, and heat never really registers after a certain point."

"So...basically Mai's like a walking hot water bottle when it's cold out?" asked Gene slowly.

Fon chuckled.

"That's one way to put it. Though to be honest you and your brother just need a bit of training before you show similar abilities. You're already 'Active' in terms of having awakened them, you just need the proper mindset to consciously use it."

"That reminds me. I saw a weird shrine in my vision last night, and there were a lot of spirits floating upwards," said Mai. Chrome nodded.

"It was very strange."

"A shrine?" said Monk.

"What was different about the spirits?" asked Fon.

"They were almost empty. Like fireflies, without any emotion," said Mai.

Fon had a bad feeling about this.

"I think we need to have a look at this shrine. If this is what I think it is, it's going to be a major headache dealing with it."

"What do you think it could be?" asked Naru.

"I'd rather not taint the results with my suspicions," said Fon. Naru inclined his head with respect. He could see why Lin was such a fan of the small martial artist.

* * *

 _After breakfast..._

"A shrine? There's one down near the sea's edge past the cliff."

"Is there any way we could see it?" asked Mai politely.

"I don't see why not..."

The second Fon entered the cave, his eyes narrowed.

"What is it?" asked Naru.

"I suspected as much. This place is _very_ similar to ancient Native American burial sites that are protected by the dead. However it seems this one is guarded by an entity who believes itself to be a god."

"An ebisu?" said Monk, in surprise.

"Ebisu? As in the 'ugly' son of Izanami and Izanagi that was thrown into the sea because they didn't follow the 'correct' way of getting married, only to be reborn as the god of good fortune?" asked Mai.

It took her a few seconds to realize Ayako, Monk and John were all staring at her.

"What? Do I have something on my face?"

"No... I'm just wondering how you can be so clueless about something as basic as the nine cuts, yet know something as obscure as the old creation myths..." said Monk slowly.

Mai blushed.

"I find reading mythology more interesting than doing math homework, and it works as a bed time story in a pinch!" she said embarrassed.

Mukuro was the first one to react to that.

"Now that you mention it, I do remember Mai saying something odd the first time we met. Something about how 'Izanagi' made the mistake of looking at 'Izanami' before she fully exited the underworld and so she was trapped there," he commented.

Monk stared at her.

"What exactly were you doing that the first thing you remember was the story about how Izanagi tried to resurrect his dead wife, only to come out of the underworld and end up giving birth to the current Shinto pantheon...?" he asked slowly.

"Ask this idiot how he managed to get thrown into the lowest level of Buddhist hell and forced me to carry him out of six levels just to leave! I wasn't about to leave a kid stuck in that place, regardless of how annoying he can get at times!" said Mai openly embarrassed.

As one, the others who hadn't been in on the impromptu rescue mission stared at Mukuro. He chuckled darkly.

"There's a reason why the kanji in my eye changes from one to six. Though I despise the fifth path of hell the most."

"..."

Fon coughed into his sleeve.

"In any case, this might explain what's causing this mess. Something like an ebisu that's fallen out of worship could easily drag spirits of tragic deaths into it's own control and force them to cause a mess like this," said Fon.

Naru seemed to agree with him.

"It would also explain why the spirit that attempted to possess Mai had an empty feel towards it. Though not how she was able to exorcise it."

"We never did figure out why the ghosts in that mansion reacted so strongly to her presence, or why they kept trying to possess her so much," grumbled Mukuro. That had been irritating beyond belief, because the weaker souls were so persistent!

"What. Explain what happened," said Fon.

"The souls of victims completely ignored Masako and Mukuro and went straight to Mai instead. They seemed to use her soul as a gateway to escape the house. It got to the point she couldn't sleep and we had to put a salt line around her, as well as post a watch," said Naru.

Fon looked very surprised to hear that. He muttered something about harmony, but Naru couldn't make sense of the comment at all.

"In any event I think we should find out if there are any more of the family possessed before we place them behind a strong barrier. If this really _is_ caused by this ebisu, then it might attack them in an effort to complete the pattern it's created."

"You think this thing is causing all of it?" asked Monk.

"Gods want to be worshiped, especially self-created ones. I suspect this one is trying to force the family to remember the power it once had, but when they don't it retaliates," said Fon bluntly.

"..."

"It makes sense," admitted Lin.

Gods, especially ones like this whose popularity waned and died with the ages, were fickle and didn't care who they hurt so long as they were worshiped. There was no telling what sort of mischief this one would cause if they didn't do something permanent about it.

"Trust someone as experienced as Master Fon to figure out something like this so fast," said Monk in appreciation.

"It's a nice change of pace from my usual job, which is usually to mitigate between bickering families," said Fon.

The mafia families, whether they were the Triads of China, the Yakuza of Japan, or the familigias, had an annoying habit of getting up in arms over the most ridiculous things. Hence why having an external mediator like Fon was so important. He spent more time acting as a mediator between the squabbling Triads than he did hits. It got very annoying, very fast.

Which was why he hadn't hesitated to jump on an excuse to visit Japan, especially if it was because of Kyouya's request.

* * *

Mai felt _exhausted_. She had nearly been possessed _again_ , and it was only because her "aura" as the others saw it warded them off that the attempts were unsuccessful.

Though in reality it was because her Flames were defending her from an outside threat. Almost similar to the hallucinations people got when exposed to high levels of killing intent.

It was a very useful skill to have, and according to Fon it also worked very well with repelling Mist illusions.

Somehow, Mai had the feeling he was going to convince Mukuro to put her under _his_ illusions repeatedly so she built up a proper resistance...and learned how to control her dragon properly.

"Ugh... this is seriously annoying. Why do spirits like me so much anyway?"

"Mai, you're leaking again," Fon warned her.

Mai winced.

"Wait... how long?" she asked slowly.

"Right around the time we left the cave."

Mai groaned.

"You mean to tell me that the reason spirits come after all the time is..."

"Because they sense your Flames. The trapped ones especially... from what little Mukuro told me about the last time this sort of thing happened, it sounds like they were using your Sky Flames to let go of the feelings that kept them trapped, thus allowing them to pass on properly. Though I must admit, I've never heard of a Sky using them like that."

Mai glared at him for his open amusement on the matter.

"I'm starting to see why Kyouya calls you an 'annoying carnivore'."

"Ah, no. That's because despite my diminished appearance he has never been able to successfully beat me. Soon after he started on that whole herbivore/carnivore classification I came to visit and he decided to test himself against someone he thought of as a small animal..." said Fon.

"And you kicked his ass, thus proving yourself another carnivore, even though he was able to beat up everyone else... Which meant his pride got in the way," said Mai, guessing the rest.

"Indeed."

"Why does that not surprise me," she groaned.

"If you want to take a nap, I could stand guard. I'll wake you in time for dinner."

"Thanks," said Mai, heading towards the first spot she could find. Fon leaned against her, enjoying the way her Flames coiled around the room lazily like a great cat.

It wasn't until close to dinner that he realized something.

His Flames were coiling about content, almost _playing_ with Mai's Sky. As an experiment, he poked at his Flames lightly...and almost jolted from shock.

There was a pervading sense of warmth, of _home_ in his soul.

Out of all the times and places to harmonize with a Sky, it had to happen when he let his guard down.

Fon looked at the still sleeping Mai, who looked years younger than she acted most days. She had to mature far too early, and it showed with the way she took in strays. She was more of a surrogate mother than an "older sister".

Fon chuckled in disbelief.

"Just when I had long since given up hope of finding my true Sky... and you end up dropping into my lap in the most unexpected ways. Fate is truly an odd mistress..." he said, gently shaking her.

Mai groaned awake... she looked exhausted.

"More visions?"

"I think your guess about that ebisu was right."

"...How did you remember such an old myth anyway?"

"Manga. I got into reading supernatural horror manga with ghost themes after I joined SPR, mostly because I thought it would help me remember important facts... there are some seriously twisted series out there. Anyone I read this one featuring the god Ebisu and now every time I hear that word that series springs to mind along with the basic information. I got hooked on reading old myths after that," said Mai sheepishly.

( **A/N:** _ **The series I'm referring to is another one of the obscure ones I love to read so much. It's called**_ **Kurosagi Shitai Takuhaibin** _ **, and the story I was referring to is in the second chapter. Word of warning, it's not for people who don't like horror or can't handle mature themes. There is gore, violence, and explicit acts in the series, but it has a decent enough plot.)**_

"...I really need to look into your reading habits. It's not something I-Pin will find on your bookshelves is it?"

"I read it online, and I lost interest in the series a long time ago so I cleared the bookmark on my computer. And all the books on my shelves are 'kid friendly', and those that aren't are put up someplace where someone Fuuta's size wouldn't be able to see them anyway."

Fon felt a sense of relief. Though the warmth of the harmony bond was still new enough that he almost felt like he should stick close to Mai.

She certainly didn't care if he used her as transport... the small size might look adorable, but short legs sucked when it came to getting around in a hurry.

"By the way... what made you think I was correct about my suspicions it was the ebisu that's causing all this?"

"I saw spirits going through the hole and then ascending. Then they repeated it over and over."

"Ceremony of Rebirth. Passing through a dark hole such as that cave symbolizes being reborn."

"And in that vision the shrine appeared warped and wrong," said Mai shuddering.

"Considering how many it's killed simply because the families didn't know to worship it, I'm not surprised. It's been corrupted because of so much death," said Fon dryly.

Everyone waited for Mai.

"Feel better?" asked Gene almost cheerful.

"A lot. I think Fon was right about that shrine though... it has a warped feeling about it in my visions."


	13. Chapter 13

The group planned to hit the cave after Ayako cleansed the area of any spirits. For once, she would be able to prove her self-proclaimed abilities as a proper Miko. Fon was observing from Mai's shoulder, rather interested.

With any luck, by dispersing the majority of the minions it would weaken the corrupted "kami" that was enshrined in the cave.

Monk decided to break the tension by finding out exactly how extensive Mai's knowledge of the old myths was.

As it turned out, she knew more than he did.

"So Mai, what do you know about the god Ebisu?"

Mai had an odd smile on her face.

"The first child of Izanami and Izanagi was Hiruko, but because of his terrible deformities was cast out into the sea in a boat of reeds. He was healed and became the god Ebisu, who governs over good luck, prosperity, as well as the standard good fortune and safety when it comes to fishing. Which is why you'd often find shrines dedicated to him in small fishing villages."

"Erk... How do you know this stuff."

"Manga, mostly. You'd be surprised how often manga writers use old myths as a plot point," said Mai. "The one I learned about Ebisu was a horror/mystery series that was quite graphic."

Monk stared at her.

"I'm starting," said Ayako.

Seeing the old men come out of the trees (thus putting some validity into Ayako's claims of being a self-taught Miko) and disperse the majority of the spirits that had been plaguing the family, Mai could feel the difference in the air. However her attention was firmly on the coast, in the direction of the cave.

"What is it?" asked Monk.

"I don't know. But I can't help but get the feeling that it was a little _too_ easy..."

Monk sputtered.

"Easy?!" said Ayako.

"Think about it. Fon said that it's possible we're going after a corrupt god. Do you really think a simple blessing would keep it from recalling the spirits it's 'claimed' and having them come after us?" said Mai.

Ayako paused.

"If this is something with that level of power, it does stand to reason that it could recall the spirits I just sent away."

"Exactly. I highly doubt that it's going to let your cleansing go unanswered," said Mai.

Naru snapped his book shut.

"She has a point. It's too late to deal with this fake god tonight, but there's no telling whether or not it'll attack us when our guard is down. For safety we should bring the family into our base and set up a perimeter, at least until morning," said Naru.

* * *

 _Two hours later..._

"Mai, duck!" shouted Gene.

She yelped as the 'ghost' almost hit her again. Once was enough...those things HURT. She did a small roll, before she unleashed the "nine cuts".

This was getting ridiculous! If Monk hadn't taken that hit to the head, then maybe they could have set up a barrier by now! Gene was following Fon's instructions and alleviating the worst of it with Qigong (at least that's what everyone else assumed, though in reality it was Sun Flames) but until Monk's head stopped spinning they were going to have to fend off the spirits.

Seeing the spirits go after Gene, something in Mai snapped.

She felt a rising pressure, almost like the feel of a hurricane about to hit. She only vaguely heard the silent roar of the dragon that was the manifestation of her soul.

Orange fire spread across the room, though it did not burn. Any spirit that touched it screamed, before floating away.

Naru, Gene, Mukuro, Chrome and Fon all shivered when that orange fire seemed to nuzzle them.

The pure feeling of Mai's Sky mingling with their own Flames was like no other sensation they had felt before, nor would again.

It was the feeling of home, of arms wrapped protectively, of unconditional love and acceptance for everything they were.

The feeling of _harmony_ was a mere side note, feeling Mai's love for them all, though in varying degrees of it.

The dragon didn't retreat like normal. Instead it seemed to lazily coil around the room, it's head firmly in Mai's lap.

Naturally Mai took that chance to get a good long look at the thing.

It was massive, though it seemed to adjust it's size to fit the room. The scales were about the size of her hand, and the eyes were slitted and warm. It almost looked like Shenlong from the old Dragonball series, though this one was far from kid friendly. It had razor sharp talons, fangs that looked more like steak knives than anything else and sharp horns.

It actually reminded Mai of a large, oversized house cat in a way.

Which only made her spare a glance at Naru and Gene, both of whom were leaning against the dragon's scales with a look of rare contentment on their faces. Mukuro and Chrome were doing the same, though they were napping.

Everyone else had bunched up close together, though Lin was giving the dragon odd looks...she could feel his shiki 'poking' at it with curiosity.

Mai had the oddest mental image of Naru and Gene as a pair of cats. Russian Blues seemed to suit them rather well.

She could see it now... the Naru cat on a window ledge watching everyone with cool disdain, his tail flicking lazily as it napped and observed everything with disinterest. Gene, romping around playing and being a nuisance, occasionally trying to drag the other cat into his play.

With Lin the tired caretaker of the two.

She had to hold back a laugh at the image.

"An amusing thought?" asked Fon quietly on her shoulder.

"Naru and Gene as cats, specifically Russian Blues. Naru on a ledge watching everything with bored disinterest while Gene's playing and making a nuisance of himself...and Lin's stuck as their caretaker."

Fon blinked, looked at the napping twins...before he quickly hid his smile behind his sleeve. He was definitely trying hard not to laugh at the mental image, because he could completely see that in his mind's eye.

As the cold light of dawn cracked over the horizon, the dragon let out a loud yawn before disappearing back into Mai's soul.

Mai felt rather sleepy, but not enough that she would take a nap. There was no telling what they would deal with in the cave.

Mai only had a split second to register it. The feel of Naru's Flames snarling in anger and hurt pride, and the feel of his Storm about to cause more damage to himself than the fake god they were trying to get rid of.

"Naru!" she cried out, trying to tackle him to the ground.

"Noll!" yelped Gene, only a half second after Mai.

Naru let loose, his chi and Flames slamming into the fake god right a second after Mai grabbed his arm in an attempt to do _something_.

There was a massive explosion and the feeling of the air cleared... the ebisu was completely destroyed, and Mai was clinging to his arm.

Though it took him a few seconds to register that her eyes were amber colored and a small flame was alight on her forehead. That the hand holding him had that orange fire that didn't burn.

It was only for a few seconds, but then it sputtered out and she actually slapped him across the back of the head.

"Are you and idiot?! You know Qigong is risky for your health!" shouted Mai, her voice almost hoarse.

He didn't need to see the tears to know how close she was to crying her eyes out over worry for him. Guilt flooded his heart, and worry for Mai.

How had she grabbed him so easily like that, when even Lin had trouble getting near him when he used Qigong offensively?

For that matter, why wasn't he feeling the side effects of it by now?

They were out of the cave and heading to the stairs when it happened.

One moment Mai was walking in front of him, the next she began to tilt to the side...and collapsed. Naru, who was right behind her, barely manged to catch her before she crashed onto the ground.

"Mai!" yelped Gene, at her side in an instant. He checked for a pulse and was relieved to feel one. She was breathing, but raggedly as if she had run a marathon and her body temperature was spiking big time.

Fon checked her vitals.

"I assumed I had imagined her slipping into that state..." he said, mostly to himself.

"What state?" asked Lin, picking her up.

"There is a state that allows every limiter the body has to be turned off temporarily. It's very difficult to pull off, but if done correctly then the user can perform amazing feats. However... it's incredibly taxing on the body. So much so that achieving it is extremely rare. For her to slip into that without training or knowing what she was doing is very dangerous. We're lucky she merely collapsed, rather than have her heart stop," said Fon from Lin's shoulder. "Though putting her in the hospital wouldn't be remiss."

Naru looked at Mai with horror...mostly because she had gone into that state because of _him_.

She had taken the brunt of the side effects Qigong had on his body... he knew that much instinctively. He should have passed out himself by now, but he felt fine. A little tired, but otherwise no change.

But Mai had taken in the excess and had collapsed.

She had done it without even thinking twice about it. All because of his damn pride.

He felt relief finding out she was just exhausted, and nothing serious. Most of that was from the state she had gone into without training, rather than the excess chi she had taken in from him. That had dissipated without any harm the second it came into contact with her Flames, according to Fon.

After all, what damage could the "Storm" do to the Sky? It had bleed out the extra energy and disappeared as quickly as it could form.

It seemed that much like Gene, Mai could naturally filter his chi to the point that she could touch him without feeling any feedback.

"Well?" demanded Naru.

"Exhaustion. She just needs to rest for at least two days and she'll be right as rain," said Ayako.

He almost sagged in relief.

"More importantly, what happened in there?!" demanded Ayako. "She grabbed you and suddenly she passed out!"

"Mai acted as a filter for Naru's oversurge," said Fon.

"Oversurge?"

Fon went to Mukuro. He gave the boy a look and the Mist rolled his eyes.

"Fine, I'll help your explanation make sense."

"Imagine a balloon," said Fon, with Mukuro creating a red balloon. "This is someone's baseline chi, or spiritual powers. However in Naru's case, this balloon is overfilled almost to the bursting since he hasn't been able to bleed out the excess."

The balloon expanded until it was almost about to break. You could see it straining.

"Okay, but what does this have to do with Mai?" asked Monk seriously.

"You have to understand... before now Gene was the only 'safe' filter for Naru's excess powers," said Fon. Mukuro created a second balloon (this one yellow), one that siphoned off the 'air' from the first until they were normal size. "However it seems Mai is able to siphon off off Naru's chi without harming herself in the process."

He created a third balloon, this one orange that did the same thing that the yellow one did.

"Then why did she collapse?!" demanded Ayako. Mai was a good kid and practically her little sister. Seeing her out cold in a hospital bed was going to give her nightmares.

"Imagine all the body's limiters placed by the brain suddenly turned off for a short period of time. You'd be able to pull off great feats of strength...but the price is that when those limiters are put back your body goes into shock having to reorient yourself to those imposed limits," said Fon. "It's rare, and it requires training, but certain people can pull it off. Mai must have done so out of instinct because of the danger of the fake god and the fact she knew Naru was damaging his own body. I'll have to train her later to learn how to use it correctly."

"She'll be alright, won't she? This doesn't do any long term damage?" asked Ayako seriously.

"It was brief enough that she'll just be exhausted for a few days. And as long as she gets the right training it won't cause any harm later. She seems to have an instinctive knowledge of how to use her powers properly, which is actually a good thing."

"Um... what about Fuuta and the others?" asked Gene.

"I could call the house to tell them to behave themselves for a few days," said Mukuro. And if he told the others to behave (namely Ken), then they would. "It's not like Mai didn't give them plenty to buy food with until we came back."

"...I could always make a portal and you could bring them here, just to be safe. I know Fuuta and the others would be upset if they found out she was here and they never got a chance to see for themselves that she was alright," said Gene.

"Please do. At least then we'll know for sure Ken isn't causing a mess with the microwave _again_ ," said Mukuro.

"Watch out for Reborn. Last I heard he was in the area trying to find Mai," warned Fon.

As it was, thanks to Gene's portal there was a nice little mystery for Reborn to deal with...and he would be quite vexed upon finding out that they were with his possible student without him knowing until after the fact.

He was going to be in for enough of a surprise, learning _Fon_ had harmonized with the girl.


	14. Chapter 14

Mai woke up to find her room almost _filled_ with people. Naru was dozing near the window with Gene next to him. Mukuro, Chrome, Ken and Chikusa had taken up their own little corner, with Mukuro's illusions creating a couch big enough for them. Monk, John and Yasuhara were napping in the corner near the door. By her sides almost pinning her to the bed was I-Pin, Fuuta and Fon.

The door slid open to reveal Lin and Ayako.

"Mai! You're awake. How do you feel?" asked Ayako, in doctor mode almost immediately.

"A little tired, and I have a bit of a headache."

She looked at the kids with some confusion.

"Gene brought them over after we moved you here. The family offered to let us crash here until you were awake enough to be moved, since there was a lot of damage done to the side building. Plus they still have to hold the funerals," said Ayako.

"How long was I out?"

"At least two and a half days. You nearly gave us all a heart attack, collapsing like that."

"Nee-chan!" yelped Fuuta, realizing she was awake. He hugged her really tightly around the neck.

His yelp woke everyone else, who fussed over her. Naru kept his distance, but it was clear he felt some major guilt over being the reason she was out cold for two days. It was pretty obvious, since he let Gene take the front seat while he allowed Mai to use his lap as a pillow. She was still sleepy, but not to the point she couldn't get up and move. Though Ayako banned her from helping put the equipment back up in the van.

Doctor's orders superseded her stubborn nature. She wasn't a complete invalid, after all.

In the front van was Lin (driving), Gene with I-Pin in his lap, and Fuuta in the middle seat. The second row had Naru, with Mai's head in his lap and Fon curling against Mai's side.

With a lot of protest, Mukuro, Chrome, Ken and Chikusa would ride with Ayako and John, while Monk took Yasuhara back to the air port so he could go back to his part time job.

It was almost a given that the group would be hovering around SPR's "Cafe area" as Naru had flippantly dubbed the second office where they stored their heavy equipment until Mai was back to her usual self.

It was far from a stretch to say that Mai was the beating heart of the group, keeping everyone together and allowing them to work a lot easier around Naru and his quirks. So when something happened to her, everyone immediately became mother hens.

Including, oddly enough, Yasuhara who didn't really have as much contact with Mai. Then again they did meet up occasionally and chatted for hours on how to troll people who annoyed them greatly.

"You know, it's a good thing Masako isn't here to see this. Didn't she throw a fit the last time Mai used you like a pillow?" grinned Gene.

Naru glared at him.

"I don't see what she finds so comfortable about this position," said Naru grumbling. His hand was on her head and she was fast asleep, like a kitten. Her temperature was a lot lower than it was three days ago.

Fon chuckled.

"It has a lot to do with the fact she feels safe around you. The physical contact allows her to relax her guard completely to the point all her defenses drop. She _trusts_ you to keep her safe," said Fon. "The fact you likely have a warm lap doesn't hurt either."

Gene snickered from the front. To be fair, Fuuta was napping against him, and I-Pin had turned into a little kitten in his lap.

"Noll is pretty cuddly and warm," agreed Gene. Naru shot him a dirty look.

"I am _not_ cuddly," he said crossly.

"Sure you're not," snickered his twin. "And Mai doesn't have a habit of turning you into her own personal teddy bear."

Even Lin snorted at that. It was hard to dispute the claim when Naru allowed Mai several 'liberties' on his person that even his own twin only got under severe protest. Like the fact she intruded on his personal space more often than not. He never offered so much as a _hint_ of protest.

Which reminded him...

"Martin and Luella said they were going to be heading this way next month."

Shocked silence.

"Who are they?" asked Fon. The twins looked like they were having a heart attack.

"Our adopted parents," said Gene.

"They're coming to meet Mai aren't they?" said Naru sullenly.

"This is the first time you've displayed normal human interactions, and she's the first person you've taken an interest in without being forced into it. Of course they want to meet the girl who managed to get past your prickly exterior," deadpanned Lin. Fon chuckled. "It doesn't help that she managed to get the attention of _both_ of you."

Naru looked very annoyed and Gene looked a little worried. Mostly he was concerned their parents wouldn't like Mai.

* * *

"Ciaossu."

Mai took one look at the baby, before she let out a massive yawn. Fon had said she only needed one more good night's sleep before she would be back to normal.

"Go back to sleep Mai," said Mukuro.

She didn't even try to argue against the suggestion.

"Why is the Sun Arcobaleno in our house?" asked Mukuro flatly.

"Why is a known criminal living in a civilian city?" countered Reborn.

"I was cleared of my 'crimes' by the Vindice," said Mukuro flatly. "As far as they're concerned, I'm not their problem unless I go rogue. Why are you here?"

"Merely to confirm my suspicions."

Reborn noticed his pacifier glowing, though he was still a little surprised to see Fon.

"Fon."

"Reborn."

"What are you doing here?"

Fon's serene smile was a little sharp.

"Merely insuring _my_ Sky recovers from the last case," he replied.

That stopped Reborn's usual banter cold.

" _Your_ Sky?" he repeated in shock.

Fon flared his Flames a little bit, enough for Reborn to get a read on them. His shock was open on his face and he only vaguely noticed the Mist taking pictures with his phone.

"Mai left Namimori for a reason, and if you're planning to send her back I'm afraid I will have to stop you," said Fon evenly.

Reborn made a face.

"I'm aware of the mess Tatsuya created when his Flames went active. Once I confirm that she is in fact the first born of Iemitsu I can finally recommend a full seal on them," said Reborn.

Tatsuya was a danger to himself and others, and there was no way Reborn was going to train someone who _deliberately_ erased the memories of his own mother just to get his sister out of the way. If that spoiled brat knew that Reborn was planning to train Mai as the Vongola heir, not him, he might try to kill her or worse.

If this was the same Mai Sawada who had disappeared almost three and a half years ago, then it meant Tatsuya was just a spare source of blood to the Vongola. Annoying, but no longer Reborn's problem unless it risked the Vongola as a whole.

Reborn looked at Fon oddly.

"You mentioned a case. What sort of case?"

Mukuro snorted.

"She's a secretary in a research group. We just finished a case that was particularly annoying and our boss did something stupid, and she ended up using too much of her Flame by accident," said Mukuro bluntly.

Fon could see what Mukuro was doing. Let Reborn find out the hard way Mai was part of a paranormal research group. Rather ironic, considering Flames could easily be considered supernatural in origin.

* * *

 _The next morning..._

Mai woke up, took a quick shower, and went downstairs to start breakfast.

And found a second toddler in her house.

"Ciaossu."

"...I clearly need coffee. I must be imagining a second Arcobaleno in the house."

Reborn smirked.

"You're not dreaming and I'm a friend of Fon's."

Mai went to the cabinets, only to twitch when she found they were out of coffee.

"I am going to kill Ken. He knows not to touch my stash of coffee!" she whined. Now she would have to go shopping for more, on top of groceries!

"I'd be willing to share mine, if you would be willing to listen to what I have to say without complaining and answer a few questions I have."

Mai debated, before her need for caffeine won out.

Though once she had a cup she knew she'd be ruined from the already ground coffee for life.

Reborn smirked.

"Are you Sawada Mai?"

She tensed.

"I dropped that name when I realized what that idiot Tatsuya did to my mother. There's a reason I've been using her maiden name and I refuse to go back to that person again," she said stiffly, clutching her cup tightly.

"Fair enough. Can you explain what exactly caused the rift between you and that spoiled idiot? He was rather evasive about why he drove you off and erased you from Nana's mind."

Mai felt the old anger rise to the surface.

"I was constantly arguing with my mother about the fact she needed to quit pretending my father was still alive. She would try to laugh it off and claim he went to become a star, but I know she's at least tried to date again after she brought in that loser one week. After the way I nearly threw him out she was a lot more discreet about it, but I was sick and tired of her pretending he was still around. Tatsuya hated the fact we were always fighting, so he decided to remove one side of the argument from the equation. I have no idea how he managed to erase her memory, just that I came home one day and the first words out of her mouth was to ask if I was a friend of his," said Mai bitterly. "I knew I had to get out of Namimori when I was forced to break into my own _house_ just to get my things when she changed the locks, and no amount of evidence would convince her that I was her daughter. I tried pictures, people who knew our family even peripherally, hell I even dragged out my own birth certificate and she didn't believe me."

"How did you manage to set yourself up outside of Namimori without leaving traces?"

"Hibari Kyouya. He busted me when I was sleeping in the Disciplinary Committee office after school hours and demanded an explanation. Once he confirmed I wasn't lying about the situation, he took an interest and found that my situation was far from acceptable and that it was slowly killing me. So he helped me abandon my old name and set me up in Tokyo... at least once I stole my mother's seal so that I could withdraw whatever inheritance we were living off of. It wasn't like she was using it outside of groceries and the odd expenses. The bills were all prepaid anyway," said Mai dismissively. "I paid for this house and the groceries, though most of it went into investments. I mostly work as a secretary because it means I won't have to mess with selling stocks just to pay the bills."

Well at least Mai clearly had a better sense of how to handle money than her brother. Then again, she had been forced to learn how to become independent out of necessity.

The fact she could pay for a house this size _and_ the number of people currently living in it spoke volumes of her ability to manage money and expenses. A good quality to have in a boss.

"Are you aware of Dying Will Flames?"

Mai openly snorted.

"If I didn't before, I was given a crash course when Fon showed up and found I had successfully argued against the Vindice arresting Mukuro and his brothers. So far I can hold my Dying Will mode for at least ten minutes, but I'm still having trouble fine tuning it. Though it seems to have an instinctive defense mechanism when I'm in trouble... a few times a dragon made of my Flames has shown up to protect me and others," said Mai.

Reborn blinked.

"You actually managed to get the _Vindice_ to back off on their claims of a known criminal?"

"The first family he destroyed tortured and used him and his brothers in inhumane experiments. The second family took them in less than a month after they escaped... too soon for the trauma to have healed over. At the very least they could easily claim PTSD for why they took them out, and it doesn't hurt their case that Lancia was the only one who had frequent contact with them to the point they didn't automatically lump him in with the rest of his familigia. As for the third time... they were acting under my orders to get rid of some thugs trying to kidnap Fuuta for his abilities. So long as I'm the one keeping them on a 'leash', so to speak, the Vindice could care less as long as I follow the rules. It doesn't hurt that they gave me a list of things I can and can't do," said Mai flatly.

Reborn could accept that. Though he was curious as to _why_ Mukuro agreed to follow her orders in the first place, civilian Sky or not. Clearly there was a story behind it.

"Very well. I suppose you're wondering why I'm here."

"A little yes," she admitted.

"I was hired to train the next Decimo of the Vongola. Though apparently no one told that idiot Iemitsu that his son was a particularly nasty Mist, as opposed to a Sky like he assumed. Once I confirmed Tatsuya didn't have a lick of Sky flame, I started looking for you," said Reborn flatly. "Once I confirm you have Sky Flames and are in fact Mai Sawada, you will be the next in line to lead the Vongola familigia."

"Why me? And who is Iemitsu?" asked Mai baffled.

"Iemitsu Sawada is the head of CEDEF, as well as the External Adviser to the Vongola," said Fon.

"As for why you... Iemitsu Sawada is a direct descendant of Vongola's first boss, Ieyasu. Or as he was originally known, Giotto. As such he and his bloodline have a legitimate claim as heirs to the Vongola family. That, and all the previous heirs are either dead or have done something to end up on house arrest which means their claim was skipped over," said Reborn. "I just need a blood and Flame test to prove you are in fact of the Vongola bloodline."

"Well she certainly has Hyper Intuition," said Fon dryly. "So even if she wasn't a direct descendant, she's still a Vongola by blood."

"Exactly how do you know she has Hyper Intuition? What sort of secretary would need such a thing?" said Reborn.

Mai and Fon shared a look.

"You'll figure it out eventually," said Fon smiling with amusement, as if privy to a joke. Mai nodded with agreement.

Reborn took a quick blood sample, and had Mai summon her Dying Will Flame long enough to confirm she was in fact a Sky. He'd have confirmation she was in fact Mai _Sawada_ within the next day or two.

The mafia was much faster at confirming bloodline than civilians.


	15. Chapter 15

Reborn was looking at the blood test results with anticipation. He was genuinely hoping this girl was in fact the missing first born of that idiot Iemitsu.

Tatsuya was a total disappointment as a potential boss and as a student.

Though he had very little doubt as to what the test would prove. Taniyama Mai looked far too much like her mother Nana with bits of the Primo thrown in for it to be a coincidence.

He opened the envelope and was relieved to find that it confirmed what he already knew.

Now he had to make a few calls, and get the ball rolling properly.

Considering the mess in Namimori, there was no way he could condone forcing Mai to uproot herself from her home a second time... it would only cause needless trauma as the damage done to her mother was too extensive for it to be fully healed.

Besides, she had already had a support system set up here in Shibuya. Though he was still baffled as to why a mere secretary would have need of Hyper Intuition enough that even Fon could confirm what it was, much less use her Flames.

" _Ciaossu, Timoteo. I have news of your heir,"_ said Reborn in Italian.

" _How is Tatsuya? There's no problem is there?"_ asked Timoteo.

" _Tatsuya is a straight Mist. One that I would heavily recommend be sealed at the first available opportunity. He's done enough damage as it is,"_ said Reborn bluntly. _"He drove out his own sister from the home without even a second thought, and he has used his Flames on his_ mother _to erase the existence of his elder sister from the woman's mind so thoroughly there's very little chance that the damage could be fixed."_

Dead silence.

" _I see. And the girl?"_

" _I have test results proving that a Taniyama Mai is in fact the missing daughter,"_ said Reborn.

" _Taniyama?"_ repeated Timoteo.

" _According to Mai, she chose to take her mother's maiden name to keep anyone from finding her and dragging her back to her mother. That's not all...she's the current legal guardian of the Ranking Prince,"_ said Reborn.

That was big news... there was a great deal of speculation as to who had custody of the missing Ranking Prince, since his ability would make him very coveted indeed.

" _... What's your assessment of her?"_ asked Timoteo.

" _To be honest if I had to chose who is the best candidate between them as a potential Decimo, it would be the girl hands down. Tatsuya is far too volatile and spoiled, and is completely the wrong sort of Flame to take over the Vongola,"_ said Reborn without hesitation. _"Though I do have to question Iemitsu's competence if he didn't even realize his own daughter had been forced out of her home by her brother, or the fact that he missed his son tampering with his mother's memory so blatantly. If I hadn't seen those older pictures, I never would have found out that there was a second child in the home originally."_

There were a few pictures on the walls that featured a young girl who bore a striking resemblance to Nana, though when questioned about who she was the woman honestly didn't know. That was what had originally tipped Reborn off that something was very wrong with the Sawada home, especially after he shot Tatsuya and the idiot had an indigo flame on his head instead of the orange one needed.

And after confirming the brat had done something to his mother, Reborn had known that the boy would never make a proper Decimo candidate.

It was just luck Dino recognized Mai's picture and had commented on it to his old teacher. Even if the picture was of a much younger girl.

Reborn knew Timoteo would need time to confirm a few things before he altered the contract appropriately. He could be patient.

* * *

 _Several hours later..._

"Ciaossu," said Reborn.

Naru merely blinked when he saw the 'toddler', at least until he registered the pacifier and took a guess.

"Are you like Fon by any chance?"

"Yes."

"Not my problem," said Naru. He was more worried about his parents visiting than another fake toddler, so long as he didn't become a nuisance.

"Here's your tea Naru. Honestly I don't see why you and Gene are so worried. It's not like your parents are that bad... are they?" said Mai cheerfully.

Reborn noted with interest the blush the teen had on his face. So Mai already had an admirer. This ought to be fun.

The door opened to reveal a second boy who looked identical to "Naru". This was likely Gene then. And he had Fuuta de la Stella on his shoulders, cheerfully talking about his school day.

"Have fun?" asked Mai with warmth.

"I got a perfect score on my test, Mai-onee-san," said Fuuta happily.

She patted him on the head when he hugged her.

"Good job!"

Gene noted the toddler, before he asked "Fon?" to his twin.

"Fon," confirmed Naru.

The mattered settled, Gene walked over to Mai and gave her a kiss on the cheek, causing her to blush a little.

"Interesting," said Reborn.

"Not really. They both like her, and Mai doesn't mind the fact they intend to share her. They take her on separate dates, so it evens out in the end," said Fon.

Mai bent down and picked I-Pin up with a hug. The little girl was chattering about the things she learned in Chinese, which Mai was becoming rather proficient at. She could now hold a basic conversation in it with Fon and rarely Lin. Both of whom patiently corrected her pronunciation.

"She's dating both?" said Reborn with some surprise.

"They are identical twins. It's not like anyone would know otherwise unless they saw both of them at the same time," said Fon with amusement.

Reborn could acknowledge that.

Mai gave I-Pin and Fuuta their usual snack, before she went to her computer.

A quick check proved she was doing her homework.

"You must not get a lot of business if you have time to do your homework."

"We have our slow days. If we have a case within the next week I'll be very surprised," said Mai without looking up. "We generally go a few months between cases though."

The door opened an hour or two later, revealing Monk, Ayako and John.

"Another one?" said Monk looking at Reborn.

"How common is that curse anyway?" said Ayako.

Reborn looked at Fon sharply. He looked more amused than anything, which Reborn found suspicious.

"Exactly what did you tell them?"

"It's not my fault that they recognized my name from before," said Fon smoothly. He was clearly trying not to laugh about something.

"It's good to see you're up and about again Mai. You had us worried."

Ayako was on her in a heartbeat, checking her vitals.

"You're still a bit feverish, but you've definitely improved," she said after a moment.

"I'm fine," said Mai, trying not to roll her eyes. They were only like this because they cared.

"Well considering you collapsed like that..." said John.

"Collapsed?" said Reborn. Did the girl have a medical condition he wasn't aware of?

"She slipped into Hyper Dying Will mode by accident a few days ago," explained Fon. "Outside of her body going into shock and needing a few days of sleep, she seems to have a knack for using her Flames."

"Oh, so he's like you and Mai then?" asked Monk.

"Actually I'd say he's closer to Ken than Mai or myself, though he is a major troll," corrected Fon.

"She went into Hyper Dying Will mode by accident. Exactly what is it that you were doing that could cause her to use _that_?" said Reborn incredulous.

Mai stared at him with some amusement.

"You _do_ know what SPR stands for, right?"

"I know it's a research group," said Reborn.

"Shibuya _Psychic_ Research. Basically professional ghost hunters and psychics. We had to deal with a fake god in the last case, hence why it was such a headache," said Fon.

"...You have _got_ to be kidding," said Reborn flatly.

"What did you think the Ranking Prince's abilities were?" said Fon with open amusement. "The boy is a natural clairvoyant."

Okay, he had Reborn there. It would explain a lot about how he could see things others couldn't. And it was hard to discredit the supernatural when he could use Flames and was under a curse himself.

But still... a _psychic research group_?

"Is this place even accredited?" asked Reborn dubious.

"We're actually the Japanese Branch office of the British Society for Paranormal Research," said Gene.

Monk blinked at that.

"We are?"

"How did you think we convinced our parents to let us stay in Japan long term?" said Naru coldly.

"Noll!" scolded Gene. "They've been wanting to expand to Asia for some time, but it's been a pain trying to establish a group in China or Korea. And Japan's paranormal research has been spotty at best. At most all we did was buy both offices to act as the permanent base for our group. If we keep adding people to our team we might have to get a new building."

"That is actually pretty cool," said Monk. He didn't seem to mind the fact that they were now part of an accredited group of paranormal researchers. Far from it.

Reborn wondered how Timoteo was going to handle the fact his heir was part of a paranormal research group, especially considering what Flames could do.

While they seemed to know she had them, they clearly thought that they were some sort of psychic power and didn't ask further than that.

* * *

 _The next morning..._

Reborn was finishing his breakfast when his phone went off.

"Ciaossu."

" _Hello Reborn."_

" _Have you come to a decision?"_ asked Reborn. It had been almost a full day.

" _I must admit, I am appalled that the situation in Namimori is as bad as you said. Rest assured I will be clearing my schedule soon to place the seal on young Tatsuya. As for the contract... I am formally switching your student to young Mai."_

Reborn could only feel relief at that. From what he saw, Mai could be a very good boss.

" _What time would be best for me to come by and remove the seal?"_

" _She was sealed?"_ said Reborn with open surprise.

" _Iemitsu asked me to seal his daughter when she was five."_

" _Well if there_ is _a seal, it's been broken already. She's already harmonized with a few Guardians, one of which is_ Fon _, as well as two Mists and partial bonds with a Sun and Rain. Though I still haven't pinned down what the other two are, since they seem to have an even mixture of three different ones,"_ said Reborn flatly.

Dead silence. Reborn was wondering if he had given Vongola Nono a heart attack.

" _Are you absolutely certain about that?"_

" _Fon flat out stated she accidentally went into Hyper Dying Will mode less than a week ago,"_ replied Reborn without hesitation. _"He also has hospital records that are consistent with someone who went into shock from using that state without training."_

More silence. Reborn could only imagine the shock Timoteo was feeling.

" _What_ exactly _has she been doing that the seal would break and she would slip into Hyper Dying Will mode?! She's a civilian!"_

He couldn't help but feel open amusement about the whole situation.

" _A civilian working in the Japanese branch of the British Society for Paranormal Research, and is currently dating twin brothers. Apparently the seal broke during a particularly nasty case, and the last one they had involved a corrupted god. They have video evidence when the seal broke, though there was no human involvement when it happened,"_ said Reborn, sipping his coffee.

He could feel the incredulous shock from the other end of the line.

" _I am getting too old for these sort of shocks,"_ grumbled Timoteo.

" _She also convinced the Vindice to drop all charges on Rokudo Mukuro, who is one of her Mists."_

" _Reborn, my heart can't take much more of this,"_ complained Timoteo with an actual whine.

This was hilarious.

" _Well imagine how much fun you're going to have explaining to Iemitsu his_ daughter _is dating identical twins with psychic abilities,"_ said Reborn with glee. _"Both of whom have full Guardian bonds with her."_

That seemed to perk him up. The show alone would be highly entertaining...once Timoteo chewed him out for letting the situation in Namimori deteriorate this badly.

Reborn was forced to make a file on Taniyama Mai from scratch, all because Iemitsu hadn't bothered to show his face in Japan for several years.


	16. Chapter 16

It was supposed to be a normal business day. Or as normal as you could _get_ when it came to being a member of SPR.

Except Reborn managed to trick, er... _convince_ Naru to let Mai go for a few hours. Nothing too serious, just some business he needed her to deal with.

Mai came back with a stormy look on her face, and the twins immediately knew to stay the hell out of her warpath.

That is, until someone made the mistake of asking what happened.

"What's got your panties in a bunch?" asked Mukuro.

The temperature in the office soared. Mai was _pissed_ about something.

She turned to face him and he openly flinched, as did every boy in the office save for Fuuta.

"I don't see what the problem is. You won, after all," said Reborn calmly sipping his coffee.

"I don't appreciate the fact you tricked me into fighting an idiot who uses that many explosives! And his submissive attitude pisses me off!" barked Mai.

"What."

Mai glared at Reborn.

"This jerk," she said, snarling at Reborn, "Thought it was _hilarious_ to bring some hot headed idiot with a habit of throwing mid-grade explosives everywhere and demanded I fight him."

"What," came the duo responses of Gene and Naru, openly shocked.

"And now he's your lackey. I don't see what the big deal is."

Mai grit her teeth.

"The _big deal_ is that even _I_ can see he has no place to stay and my house is almost full already! And with his attitude I highly doubt he'd find work that could possibly pay for a decent apartment anywhere in Tokyo, never mind that I have little doubt you're somehow going to get him into _my_ class sometime in the near future! And his behavior is way too submissive to be normal!" said Mai irate.

"I'm confused," said Gene.

Mai looked beyond irritated at Reborn.

"I'm dragging the lackey you stuck me with here. I'm sure you'll understand my irritation once you meet him."

The twins shared a look.

* * *

Naru and Gene took one look at the green eyed boy with _silver_ hair before they said in unified surprise...

"Hayato?"

"Oliver? Gene? What are you doing here?" he said in equal surprise.

"No wonder Mai was irritated," said Naru tiredly.

Hayato looked confused.

"Here's your tea Naru."

"Naru?" repeated Hayato. He knew that was Oliver.

"Naru, short for Narcissist," said Mai as if it were obvious. Hayato choked back a laugh. "And yes, I am aware of what his real name is but to me he will always be Naru."

"It suits him," snickered Hayato. "Why are you here anyway?"

Naru shot Gene an irritated look.

"I came looking for him," said Naru.

"And we came back for Mai," said Gene brightly.

Mai blushed. No matter how many times they said it, it was still a shock that they chose her over their lives in England with their parents.

"Wait... are you dating Mai, Gene?" asked Hayato.

"We both are," said Gene, as if it were obvious.

Hayato looked very confused as to how that worked out. The twins were almost nothing alike, despite being identical.

"So how did you three meet?"

"There was a convention for child genii in London one year... our parents made Noll leave the lab to go, and I went with him. Hayato was there mostly to get away from his family for a few days," said Gene with a shrug.

"So what exactly is it that you do here boss?"

Mai had _finally_ convinced Hayato to drop the "princess" and "Tenth" title around her, and got him to just use "boss" instead. It was far less obvious and embarrassing for her.

"She's my secretary and the one who runs interference with potential clients," said Naru bluntly.

Hayato sputtered.

"Secretary?"

"Considering my last job was working at a really boring convenience store on third shift, this is a major upgrade," said Mai flippantly.

Seeing Hayato didn't get it, Reborn clarified for him.

"Mai did the same thing you did, for slightly different reasons. Except she didn't have anyone come chasing after her trying to bring her back."

Hayato blinked, before he paled.

"Wait...does this have anything to do with why you had me come to Namimori?" he asked slowly.

"Tatsuya has proven entirely unsuited, and so now the titles and everything else will pass to Mai if she can successfully claim them," said Reborn.

"Titles?" repeated Naru and Gene incredulous.

"Mai's father is one of the heirs of a long line of a rather prestigious family in Italy. However all the previous heirs killed each other off and the fourth was skipped over, which left her and Tatsuya."

"Who is Tatsuya?" asked Mukuro.

Mai grit her teeth, clearly beyond pissed off.

"Do not mention that name to me again if you want to keep your teeth," she said with a growl.

Tatsuya was a major taboo subject for her.

For all intents and purposes, she was an orphan. And it was highly unlikely that status would ever change unless something BIG happened. After all, her mother had effectively been cut out of her life and her father never existed in it in the first place.

"Yes, well the idiot was supposed to keep tabs on his family. When I found out the real situation, I immediately started looking for Mai. A boss should not abandon family like that. Now that I've confirmed she is the same girl, I'm going to be tutoring her to take over the family business," said Reborn.

Mai rolled her eyes.

"Try not to get killed during our cases and don't make too big of a nuisance of yourself. It's bad enough I'll probably have to clean out the attic to make room for another boarder."

Reborn looked amused.

"You know you could simply buy another house."

"Or I could do the smart thing and simply add an extension. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to buy a _house_ in Tokyo, even if the market is in a low area right now?!"

"...Mai, how would you know what the prices are for the real estate in Tokyo?" asked Naru slowly. They knew because they had been pricing houses for a while.

Mai waved off the question with a dismissive comment of...

"My account manager suggested I look into buying more houses instead of playing with stocks. I think he was trying to convince me into money laundering, but I'm not an idiot. I prefer to keep all my transactions clean until I'm a legal adult," said Mai flippantly.

Naru and Gene stared at her, while Reborn just looked amused.

"You 'play' with stocks?" said Gene incredulous.

Mai went on her tablet and pulled up her bank account information. Outside of the one big withdrawal (she left the seal and the rest with her mother to throw off suspicion just in case) the rest was entirely HER money.

Gene choked when he saw the number on the screen.

"Why are you working with us and not living off this?" he asked baffled.

"Just because I have that amount doesn't mean I can _access_ it. It's all tied up in investments and stocks. The paycheck I get from here mostly handles day to day expenses, while the rest is paid automatically from the bank like the electric and water bill. I prefer to think long term pay outs ever since I left home for good," said Mai. Then she glared _lightly_ at Mukuro. "Of course it would HELP if a certain puppy would quit destroying the microwave."

Ken still had trouble with that...though at this point she suspected it was more to annoy her than anything.

"I have a headache," said Naru with a pained expression. Gene had a similar look on his face.

"So Hayato, what exactly do you specialize in outside of blowing things up?" asked Mai, changing the subject with ease.

"UMA's."

Mai had a rather odd look on her face, before she glanced at Naru and Gene.

"That explains so much about why you got along with these two," she deadpanned. "We have enough trouble with ghosts and spirits...can we not add aliens on top of that?"

"Agreed," said Naru without hesitation.

Hayato had a mischievous look on his face.

"Who's to say ghosts or demons aren't UMA's to begin with?"

"...You're not a Scientologist are you?" asked Mai, pinching her nose.

Hayato had an offended look on his face.

"I'm Catholic, as is tradition in my dad's family. I might pay lip service to the religion but I don't follow the same things those guys do," deadpanned Hayato.

"Figures... most of the bigger families are in Italy, which is right next door to Rome after all," said Mai.

"Well at least Mai will have someone to take her notes since she has a bad habit of falling asleep in class," said Naru amused. Mai sputtered.

"Just for that I am adding extracts into your next cup of tea," she hissed at him. Gene snickered. "And I'm withholding the coffee that Reborn introduced me too."

Gene turned the most disturbing puppy dog eyes on her. She was unmoved.

"Fuuta does it better."

Gene turned to the official "little brother" of SPR...and was hit full on with the saddest, most adorable "puppy dog eyes" that would make almost anyone cave. Or in Naru's case, make a major compromise that came close.

* * *

Naru and Gene were staring at a blushing Mai.

"You're a _Mafia Princess_?!" said Gene incredulous.

"It's not like I knew about this either until Reborn showed up! Fon hinted that I'd be considered part of the Cosa Nostra when he realized I had Flames, but I didn't know I had any inherited titles!"

"To be fair, this is all her father's fault. He's the one with the bloodline," said Fon dryly.

Naru turned to the Taoist in disbelief.

"How do you know about this?"

"I'm technically a neutral member of the Triads and a freelance hit man. You have no idea what a novelty it is to join in on your investigations, rather than be sent out on a hit. It's rather relaxing," said Fon amused. "Fortunately since Mai _is_ already part of a mafia family that means I-Pin has the option of staying out of the assassins trade because she's Mai's ward much in the same way Fuuta is."

"What exactly does this have to do with our group?"

"Officially, nothing," said Reborn bluntly. "However you two are Mai's Elements, which means you'd inevitably be dragged in unless you had your Flames sealed."

"Which _would_ effect your powers, by the way," Fon immediately added.

"Exactly what would we have to do?" asked Naru. He wasn't happy, but he also knew Mai had been completely blindsided by this as much as they had been.

"Right now, nothing. She's not officially _recognized_ as Vongola Decima. She's just the heir who has the highest chances of taking the title as the Donna of the Vongola Familigia, since there is another heir. He's still on thin ice after what he pulled, which was why he was initially skipped over. And her younger sibling was entirely unsuited to take the title at all because he has the wrong Flame attribute on top of what he did to Mai," said Reborn bluntly. "However you might be called in to defend her from danger or stand by her side in times of crisis."

"So...basically the same thing we'd do anyway, just with a more 'human' factor rather than a 'supernatural' one," said Gene slowly.

"Essentially yes," said Reborn.

"You mentioned Elements," said Naru.

"There are seven Sky Flames, and the other six tend to congregate around the seventh, which is Sky. When drawn into a Sky, the other six are collectively known as 'Guardians' or 'Elements', depending on who you ask. I've heard some Skies actually refer to themselves as 'Knights' though, usually in England or France."

Gene perked up.

"Like King Arthur?"

Reborn nodded.

"King Arthur is one of the more famous examples of Skies. It's speculated that his trusted knights like Lancelot or Gawain were actually his Guardians under a different title."

Gene perked up at that, and to a lesser extent so did Naru.

"Besides, the Vongola has multiple divisions, like an R and D department. If Mai does become Decima, odds are she could easily set up a supernatural research department and get you a lot more toys and better funding to investigate your cases. Not to mention they pretty much have a tight leash on the press with how influential they are," said Fon.

Now he had Naru's full attention. If there was one thing he hated dealing with, it was the press and the annoying fame that often came with it.

"Right now Mai has at least two Mists, one Storm and a partial Rain and Sun. She still needs a Cloud, a Lightning, a Rain and a Sun to complete her set," said Reborn. He looked at the twins specifically. "I have _no_ idea what to classify you two as, because you have _three_ Flames in equal strength and seem to have everything BUT Sky split between you evenly."

"Really?" asked Gene interested.

"You're a Mist, Sun and Rain combination," said Reborn, pointing at Gene, then looked at Naru. "You're a Storm, Lightning and Cloud combo."

Hayato stiffened at that.

"I've been reluctant to train them in Flames for the most part, though Gene has been learning from Mukuro on how to use his Mist and he picked up how to heal rather quickly," said Fon. "Naru is lethal enough without adding Flames on top of it, though if they're serious about staying with Mai, then I might teach him and Hayato how to use their Storm. At the very least it will stabilize his powers."

"I call dibs on being the Right Hand," said Hayato flatly.

"Right Hand?" said Gene.

"Generally the one stuck organizing and doing most of the paperwork," clarified Reborn.

"Basically what Lin is to Naru on a case," said Mai.

"Not a bad comparison, actually," said Fon.

"No contest from me," said Gene. Naru wasn't about to object to that either.

"What about me?" asked Mukuro smoothly.

"You get to deal with any rats or infiltrators stupid enough to try and come after our family," said Mai flatly.

"Kufufufufu... You know me so well," said Mukuro pleased.

"And Chrome will handle the paperwork, since the gods know you won't do it unless I drag you into doing it," said Mai.

Gene snickered.

"I have an idea for her Cloud," offered Fon.

Mai suddenly turned to him with an odd look on her face.

"Kyouya?" she half asked, half guessed.

Fon smiled at her.

"Well at least it won't be some jerk I can't stand. But if we're bringing him here then I want some cameras to catch the reaction of the others when they meet Naru's more violent double," said Mai flatly.

Fon actually started snickering.

It was sure to be hilarious.


	17. Chapter 17

Mai was openly trying so very hard not to laugh her ass off. She couldn't help it, it was simply too hilarious.

Every member of the SPR team, including Lin (except for Mai and the twins) were staring between Hibari Kyouya and Naru.

Gene was more or less ignored because while he looked like the two, his aura was nothing like theirs.

"Dear gods... there are _two_ of them now," said Monk finally in horror.

One Naru was bad enough...adding this "Hibari" kid was worse because he looked far more vicious compared to the disinterested Naru.

"Hibari! Hibari!" chirped a little bird on the teen's shoulder.

Mai cooed at it.

"Too cute! What's his name?" asked Mai.

"Hibird! Hibird!" it chirped, getting Mai to openly laugh.

"Can you say my name? Mai."

Hibird tilted it's head, before looking at Mai.

"Herbivore! Herbivore!"

Hibari lightly tapped the bird's head, getting it to stop.

"Not Herbivore. Hime."

Hibird seemed to understand, because it started chirping "Hime! Hime!" instead.

Mai blinked in surprise, her mouth dropping in shock.

Fon watched with amusement.

"Why the change?" he asked.

Hibari looked right at Naru who met his gaze without flinching, before looking at Mukuro.

"She has these two carnivores on a leash, and neither of them are even remotely trying to remove it."

"Carnivores?" repeated John confused.

"Hibari has a fascination with the animal kingdom. Being called a carnivore outright by him is very high praise because he sees them as equals or close to it," said Mai. "He generally considers most people 'herbivores', which actually makes sense because most people have a herd mentality and will group together like sheep. Especially in the presence of someone they instinctively know is more dangerous than they are."

Hibari's smirk at that was _terrifying_. It was so nice to know that she agreed with his assessment of the pathetic herbivores that had driven her from her den.

To be honest, he was disgusted at the way the pathetic herbivores had been acting since that failure of a pack mate lost his ability to manipulate everyone around him.

People were starting to remember that he had a sister, and were asking pointed questions about his mother's behavior.

Besides, Namimori had become very dull, though it would always be his territory.

Fon smirked.

"By the way Mai, are you aware that Kyouya is going to be joining your class soon?"

Mai paled rather impressively.

"What?" she squeaked in horror.

"Oh yes, it seems there's been far too many questions from 'concerned parties' about his habits, so he's going to relocate to Tokyo for a while."

Mai made a pained sound.

"I can't afford another person in my house."

"Hmph. I'll take over some fake carnivore's territory," said Kyouya smirking.

Translation: I'm going to steal the base of a weaker yakuza clan and send them packing and make it my own.

Mai had a pained expression on her face.

"It doesn't come back to me, and we're not helping clean it out unless we can come up with a different arrangement."

Hibari looked amused.

"I feel like I'm missing something," said Monk confused.

"You're better off not knowing," said Naru bluntly.

Mai and Fon had briefly mentioned "Hibari Kyouya" when she guessed that the Taoist was planning to bring him to the area. From the sound of it the teen was planning to clear out a minor yakuza and Mai wanted nothing to do with it. Though she was offering to clear the base out...likely in exchange for moving her growing family into it. Considering she didn't have any room at all left in her house, that was probably a smart idea.

"So long as we're not dragged in to help him," agreed Gene.

Hibari looked almost insulted at the insinuation that he would need help clearing out yakuza in the first place.

"Is anyone else freaked out by the fact that there are two Naru around now?" asked Monk.

"I really pity Masako. I have the feeling she's going to mistake Hibari as someone she can replace Naru with the second she sees him..." said Mai dryly.

Mukuro suddenly choked on a laugh. It was clear he was trying very, very hard not to laugh his ass off at the idea.

"Who's Masako?" asked Chrome innocently.

"Masako Hara, a famous medium. She has the ability, but she's far too soft on spirits," said Gene exasperated.

"She's got a TV show, I'll pull up the few episodes I have recorded for you later," said Mai. "She actually blackmailed Naru into acting as her date because he was trying to avoid his fans. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her around in a while."

* * *

 _Three days later..._

"MERCY!"

"HE'S A DEMON!"

In less than three hours, Kyouya had cleared out a minor yakuza group out of their base. It was perfectly positioned between the school and the SPR office where Mai worked.

While it was 'demeaning' for a mafia boss to be a secretary according to the fake baby, apparently it was perfectly acceptable since Mai used most of her free time (once she finished her homework) doing researching more about the paranormal and the supernatural. At most she acted as a buffer for Naru and making the tea.

The fact that working with SPR was giving her good practice with her 'flames' was the only reason Reborn was allowing it.

He still didn't know how exactly Mai was able to summon an almost sentient dragon like that.

And he was not pouting the day Mai accidentally managed to recreate Fon's Storm Dragon technique with her Sky Flames. Even if Fon was incredibly smug over the whole thing once he got over his own shock.

He was not losing his new vic...er, _student_ to that smug Storm!

* * *

"Gahahaha! Lambo-sama is here!" declared the excitable little brat.

Mai, honed by months of keeping Ken in line, lashed out with her hand and snagged the cow-print wearing almost six year old and had him hogtied within seconds.

"Sit. _Behave_ ,"she said firmly.

In seconds Lambo was sitting calmly with a grape juice in hand. Reborn stared.

"How on earth did you do that?"

"Same way I got Hayato to quit acting like an excitable puppy all the time," deadpanned Mai. "I used the 'Mom' voice on him. Works on Ken too."

She spent enough time acting as the surrogate mother for her family that she instinctively developed it. Add in Sky charisma, and she could get almost anyone to sit down, shut up and BEHAVE.

Because no one wanted to find out what the implied "or else" would be.

So when Lambo finished his juice and went to attack Reborn, only for the hit man to throw a fork at his head, Mai snapped.

Within seconds she grabbed Reborn by the back of his outfit along with Lambo and had them both in time out. Before the hit man could argue, he took one look at the expression in Mai's eyes and flinched.

Fon was trying desperately not to laugh his ass off at seeing Reborn handled like an actual child. He didn't want Mai to turn her ire on him after all, though he was usually the calm one.

He was still taking plenty of photos to sell... I mean _share_ later with his fellow Arcobaleno. And possibly Reborn's former student.

While Reborn was pouting in the corner, Mai was disciplining Lambo. She didn't hurt him, but she did give him a stern scolding.

Finding out his family was callous enough to send him after Reborn to kill him really pissed her off...even if it meant another mouth to feed long term.

Reborn looked at the scene with horror, for more than one reason.

"I do believe I know what role your moody boyfriend is going to play for the near future," said Reborn, eyeing Lambo with distaste.

"You mean Naru?"

"The brat is harmonizing with you."

"He's _five_ ," she said flatly.

"Which means you'll need a proper replacement until he's old enough to be your proper Lightning. Good thing you have another one ready to act in his place, right Mai?" said Reborn, twitching.

He'd rather deal with that narcissistic brat with multiple flames than the bratty cow.

"That reminds me... how _did_ that fool react to the news his former daughter is already dating twins?" asked Fon almost slyly.

"Like I'm going to waste the opportunity to see it in person," countered Reborn. Fon smirked in agreement.

* * *

Mai was nervous. Very nervous.

The answer for it was rather obvious.

Naru's parents were coming in from England to visit... and so they could met the girl who caught both of their interest.

Monk still didn't get how she was able to date both at the same time without any problems. Most people had trouble dating _one_ person, much less identical twins.

Ayako would just needle Mai with girl talk, to her mortification. She found it endlessly entertaining to see Mai all flustered.

John... well, he was usually on Mai's side, though generally he was more embarrassed than she was on the subject.

Lin... Lin was Lin and didn't care so long as the twins weren't hurt. Though the odds of that happening were pretty much nonexistent considering Mai genuinely did care for them both and had a high tolerance to odd behavior.

Even Madoka liked her!

So why was she so nervous?

She barely held in a giggle seeing the pained look at the enthusiastic greeting Luella gave Naru. Martin seemed rather pleased seeing Hayato there, and absolutely thrilled to meet Fuuta.

The little brunette firmly declared Naru and Gene were his big brothers, and the fact Naru didn't argue or look irritated at that declaration said volumes that he did care for the kid.

And then they turned their attention on Mai, who definitely had a deer in the headlights look on her face.

"She's even cuter than in the pictures!" squealed Luella.

"Eh? Pictures?" said Mai baffled. She suddenly gave Lin a dirty look. The older man smirked back.

Mai would refuse to claim that she yelped when she was suddenly abducted by the twin's adopted parents.

Reborn found it highly entertaining while he went to spy on the lunch meeting she had with the Davis.

* * *

 _With the Davis..._

Luella looked at Mai with bright, interested eyes. And no little amount of mischief.

"So Mai-chan, what's it like dating both our sons?"

"It's interesting. Naru can be annoying at times but he genuinely does care. And Gene is like an excitable kitten," said Mai honestly. She hated lies.

"Oh?" said Martin with interest.

"So what sort of dates do you go on?" she asked.

"Well Gene and I generally visit the amusement parks, movies or sometimes even a few arcades. While Naru and I tend to visit museums, parks and the lake," said Mai thinking about it. "And both of them are perfect gentlemen the entire time, which is a nice change of pace compared to some people I've had to deal with..."

Like Hibari and his quirks. While he was something of a gentleman, it was rare and he generally got all tsundere on her after.

Though she could honestly claim to be the only female friend he had, since very few girls would be willing to put up with his "carnivore" tendencies without a single word of complaint or disapproval.

The Davis shot a look at each other.

"How can you tell them apart?" asked Luella intently.

"It's actually pretty easy," admitted Mai. And not because of how different their personalities were. "Gene usually has this scent of sandalwood and jasmine around him, and he's usually in a good mood. He's the type to make you feel warm and fuzzy just by being around him, and when he's excitable it's like looking at a fuzzy kitten ready to play and cuddle."

"And Oliver?" asked Martin.

"A solid, steady rock. He's always serious, but he's completely unflappable in the face of real danger and he's the first to come up with a solution in a crisis. He might be a total narcissist sometimes, and he's anything _but_ spoiled, though he might pretend to act like it. He likes to hide the fact he does care about his team and the people around him behind that blunt personality of his, and he always smells like old books and tea," said Mai without thinking about it. She was so busy trying to explain how Naru always felt to her that she completely missed the looks his parents were giving each other.

Mai suddenly snickered.

"I once had a mental image of Naru and Gene as Russian blues. With Gene acting as the playful kitten always into trouble, with Naru watching it all with a disinterested gaze from a window view in the sun...and Lin was their poor minder trying to keep them out of trouble."

Luella snickered in delight, because that image almost perfectly fit with the twins and their personality. Martin snickered as well, for a completely different reason.

Namely he could see Oliver and Gene's faces which were so red they might as well be a pair of tomatoes. It was amusing on Gene, but on someone as closed off as Oliver...

It was absolutely hilarious, and he could see Lin trying desperately not to laugh himself. He was already taking pictures for blackmail later.

It was clear that their sons were in very good hands with Mai. She clearly cared about them both and could handle the twins just fine.

"I have to ask, why do you take Gene to crowded places but not Oliver?" asked Luella, smiling.

"Because I didn't want to accidentally dredge up those awful fake dates with Masako...but mostly because Naru relaxes more with less people around than he does in crowded places. He has the ability to 'read' objects, doesn't he? It can't be very pleasant if he accidentally slips and reads something in a crowded area when he's trying to relax," said Mai without hesitation. "Whereas Gene seems to thrive more around people and it reminds him that he's still alive, not trapped in the spirit realm with the dead."

The two adults stared at Mai with surprise...and some relief. Mai not only accepted their powers, but she understood the burdens that often came with them.

Gene looked very much like he wanted to jump up and hug Mai silly, and Naru was stunned she had picked up on the headaches he had with psychometry. It was beyond exhausting keeping powers like his in check, and the fact Mai instinctively knew it to the point she purposely picked areas with a lower chance of being around others was rather thoughtful.

He had simply thought she was trying to avoid reminding him of his 'dates' with Masako, not that she was actually putting his powers into consideration.

On the plus side, Mai had definitely won the full and complete approval of their parents.


	18. Chapter 18

Martin and Luella were grinning at the exasperated looks on the twin's faces. Lin just looked vindictively amused at their situation.

"So boys... how do you feel about Mai?" asked Martin.

In a rare show of agreement, Oliver and Gene shared a pained look on their face. Did they really have to go through with this sort of nonsense?

"Be honest... I know you heard what she really thinks of you earlier," grinned Luella.

Gene blushed.

"She's kind. She doesn't hesitate to put everyone else first, even when she's sick as a dog and should be in bed. She's a naturally warm person who truly cares about everyone around her and will jump into the fire to protect the people she cares about. But she also forgets to put herself into consideration... if she thinks her family and friends are in danger she won't even think of her own injuries so long as they are safe," said Gene. "She's always holding in her own pain, terrified of being alone again."

"She is too honest. She wears her heart on her sleeve without a second thought and she actually _listens_ to people. She doesn't care about what happened in the past so long as everyone is happy and safe," said Oliver without thinking, his mind immediately on Mukuro and his friends. He might have balked at letting them into his home, but Mai hadn't even hesitated to accept them. She _understood_ their pain and held them close, regardless of the blood they had spilled. "But she always tries her best, even when she's completely in over her head."

Gene nodded in agreement.

"She's like the Sky, open and vast and accepting of everything about someone without end," said Gene.

Long before Mai's seal broke or they knew what Sky Attraction was, the twins had fallen for her. Hard.

Mai was always open and honest in her intentions, and accepted everyone with open arms. It was little wonder Gene had been drawn to her light in that dark and cold place.

Martin and Luella shared a look. It was pretty clear that both of their sons had fallen for Mai so hard that there was little chance they'd be able to let go. Not without a lot of pain from broken hearts. The thing was that Mai loved them just as much, and was very protective of the twins to an almost instinctive level.

"Lin?" asked Luella.

"Taniyama-san is a very honest person. She hates deception and cares deeply about the people around her. She doesn't care who you are or what your past is, so long as you are happy with who you are now. Her first thought after she rescued a fellow astral walker from a nasty trap for mediums wasn't to let them leave, but to give them a home until they found a proper place to live considering the area we found them in wasn't habitable in the least," said Lin. "She has little interest or care for fame, and only sees people. Even when she found out about Naru's true name, she didn't care in the least and kept treating him the same way she did when she first met him."

It was one of the biggest reasons he fell so hard for Mai.

She actually saw him, not the person his fans built him up as. She treated him as the same arrogant jerk she first met and didn't even think twice about it.

And Gene... she was the reason he was even alive. After hearing about his situation, Fon and Reborn speculated it was his unique combination of Flames and his resolve not to leave his twin alone in the world that kept him alive.

The Mist created the air bubble that prevented him from drowning. The Sun kept him warm and healing from the injuries that lead to him being thrown in that lake to begin with. And the Rain kept his mind calm and clear enough that he was able to track down his twin...even if he did get caught by Mai instead.

The three flames worked in perfect harmony until he was able to concentrate on Mai strongly enough to end up in her living room from a mist portal.

It was pretty obvious that Oliver and Gene really loved Mai. And that she openly loved them both.

Which meant that their parents really had only one thing to say on the matter.

"We approve of your relationship with her."

"Mai-chan is a really likable girl!" said Martin cheerfully. He had gone into depth about parapsychology research which was well over her head and she actually sat there and tried to keep up! Without complaining once about his rambling.

She seemed happier knowing he had a job he loved and was so enthusiastic about. It was hard to be unhappy around her.

"And it's nice to see you two acting like normal, healthy teenage boys for once," said Luella.

Seeing the duo confused looks, she chuckled with a grin.

"I was beginning to worry that we'd never see grandchildren from you two... especially you Oliver," she explained.

"Mother!" yelped the twins in mortified shock. Luella laughed with delight. Considering the blush they had, it was pretty clear they had never gotten that far in their relationship just yet.

"We expect invitations to both weddings~!" said Martin laughing at their expression.

Lin was doing his absolute best not to laugh at the horrified looks on their faces, or the fact they were blushing at the idea of taking that step just yet.

The twins and Mai were content to take things slow... Mai was still in high school and had plenty of time to consider marriage later.

She wasn't Ayako after all.

(Elsewhere in Japan, Ayako had the sudden urge to strangle Lin and had no idea why...)

* * *

"You know Mai's birthday is coming up soon," commented Gene.

Naru froze.

"What."

"October fourteenth," said Gene.

Seeing his brother with the 'deer in headlights' look was hilarious.

"I already have my present and I've spread the word quietly among everyone else," said Gene rather smug.

The only one completely oblivious to the party was Mai. By this point everyone knew she hadn't properly celebrated her birthday in some time.

Ayako, Masako, Monk and John were all openly horrified when Gene finally told them why Mai had lived alone for almost three long years, when her mother was alive. Finding out her younger brother used his psychic powers to erase her existence from her mother was a shock. Mai had literally been driven out by her own family and her father, while alive, hadn't cared about his family to notice what was happening to it.

For all intents and purposes she was rendered an orphan before she was even fifteen.

It was hard for Masako to fully hate Mai after hearing that. Knowing she had been through so much pain after her own mother was forced to forget her to the point she left her home for good, yet she still kept smiling with such an honest and open heart.

So the idea of throwing one massive surprise party in SPR was only natural. Even Naru wouldn't argue about it once he saw how happy Mai was.

Naru was drawing one massive blank in his brain at the fact Mai's birthday was coming up. He was almost hyperventilating at the idea of what he should get her.

Gene snapped his fingers in his brother's face.

"Noll? Noll, stay with me here. You can't possibly be freaking out over what to get Mai, right?"

It took him a second to realize that yes, yes he was.

Gene sighed.

"You're seriously hopeless when it comes to dealing with normal human interaction," Gene said exasperated. He grabbed his twin's hand and pulled him out of the chair. "Come on Noll, I'll help you find something special for Mai. It's not like you're _completely_ oblivious to the things she likes..."

Naru was completely out of his depth. He _hated_ shopping, much less being in a mall.

"Remind me why I'm putting up with this?" he said with a hiss. One look at the giggling girls made his skin crawl.

"It's for Mai, Noll," Gene patiently reminded him.

Mai truly had the patience of a saint. Then again she was smart enough to avoid places like this when she was out with Naru... she knew he hated crowds.

Though after meeting Kyouya (which never ceased to annoy the 'cloud' as Fon cheerfully called his nephew) he could understand why.

Noll was very much a lone wolf...but Mai had somehow managed to drag him into a 'pack' of sorts.

Naru was very uncomfortable. Being around Mai made him actually notice his emotions around others, which was rather dangerous considering his powers.

But she never showed an ounce of fear towards him. Even after the mess caused by that fake god when she took the brunt of the backlash of his powers. She kept on smiling, always accepting.

So when he saw the necklace, he made a beeline for the store. Gene grinned at him, acting as a buffer so that the girls around them wouldn't try to swarm his brother.

They were too busy swooning over his friendly smile and good looks. It was hilarious...or would be if he didn't know it can and would backfire on him if he led them on.

"See Noll? I told you finding the perfect gift for Mai was just a matter of looking," said Gene.

"Yes, yes. Can we leave now?" asked Naru impatiently. He hated crowds.

He almost crashed into Kyouya. Gene snickered at the irritated look on the teen's face.

"Just a warning... there are several girls in there already primed because Noll and I were in the store," said Gene.

Kyouya made a face.

He hated herbivores.

* * *

 _Three days later..._

"SURPRISE!"

Mai nearly had a heart attack when she walked into the office... only to find a massive party just for her waiting.

"Hwa? What's going on?" asked Mai in complete shock.

"It's your birthday, so we decided to throw a party," said Gene as if it were obvious.

"Is this why you were all having those secret meetings next door for the past week?" asked Mai, getting over the shock.

Everyone was there, including Hibari and Yasuhara. (He was just as shocked meeting the more violent version of Naru as the rest of them were.)

"The food and drinks are all next door, but first, presents!" said Ayako with cheer.

Mai felt like crying. She hadn't celebrated her birthday properly in years, and for the first time in what felt like forever she had people who actually cared to remember it.

"Well what are we waiting for?" said Mai.

Everyone could see she was very happy they remembered her birthday and had set up this surprise for her.

It was a testament to how much they cared when Mai saw what the gifts were.

Ayako gave her a book on basic first aid as well as the kit (the kids were a little accident prone) and a voucher to a rather nice boutique Mai sometimes passed (and would sigh in longing at the outfits).

Monk, remembering her habit of reading obscure mythology, presented her with several books on some rather odd pantheons in foreign countries like China, India, and Korea. Most of it was in English, but odds were Naru or Gene would help her translate them.

John brought her a birthday card from the children at the church they helped out, which was signed by all the little ones and both priests, as well as a proper crucifix for protection.

Masako got Mai a few cookbooks, since she knew the other girl did enjoy it.

The kids all helped to decorate the cake, as well as made cards for her.

Hayato had some fireworks for later that night, outside the city. They didn't want to deal with the cops after all.

Mukuro, Chrome, Ken and Chikusa all pooled together the money they got helping around town to buy Mai a new dress. Most of her clothes were well worn or in dire need of replacing.

Gene was grinning as he pulled out his surprise.

"A key?" said Ayako.

"Not just any key. It's the key to our condo. An open invitation to crash at our home when yours becomes too much and you just want to sleep in without having to hear a ton of chaos every morning."

Mai loved it. Some days she just wanted to _sleep_ , and not have to deal with so many people in her home. Sadly it was a rarity in her home because of so many eccentric personalities...like the kids and Ken.

Naru gave his brother an annoyed look for coming up with that, while kicking himself for not thinking of something similar.

Mai adored the necklace, which was an Eastern dragon curling around itself to bite the tail in a classic ouroboros shape. Masako almost looked jealous. Almost.

However it was the 'gifts' from Fon and Reborn that would spawn new headaches.

Mostly Reborn's. Mai was having too much amusement at the Sun's expense because he was _jealous_ of Fon trying to steal her away when he was supposed to be training her. It was a hilarious rivalry, because they took her demands that they keep all fighting outside the house serious.

"What's Mafia Land?" asked Mai.

"It's an all expenses paid trip to an island resort for a week," said Reborn cryptically. He shot Fon a look to keep his mouth shut about what it really was. "You can bring your guardians and the kids, but that's it."

Mai gave him an unimpressed look.

"You do realize that despite the fact Naru and Gene are my first actual boyfriends, I have a seventh sense for someone up to mischief and misbehavior. Especially from someone who barely looks two," she said twitching.

Fon quickly hid his grin, but it was very, very hard to maintain his serene 'persona' when he was desperately trying not to laugh his ass off.

"Seventh sense?"

"What do you call my ability to see ghosts and astral walk?" she deadpanned.

"...Point."

"In any case all my mothering instincts are telling me you're up to causing a complete mess and hiding something. Likely to do with the mafia, considering that the name of the resort alone is pretty much a dead give away," deadpanned Mai.

Fon didn't bother to try and hide his reaction, he started cracking up. A deep, belly aching laugh at Reborn's expense.

"C-Colonello is going to love meeting you!" said Fon laughing. He almost couldn't get the name out with how hard he was cracking up.

Mai gave Reborn a Look. One that only mother's could give that would make a misbehaving child quell and start blurting out their misdeeds.

"You're no fun at all."

"...I'm a sixteen year old girl responsible for a house full of both children and a guy who's a little over a year older than I am, not to mention I'm dating twin brothers after living alone for almost three years. Fun is relative," said Mai flatly.

Reborn pouted even more.


	19. Chapter 19

"...How exactly did you get Lin to take a week off and not have him stalk us the entire time?" asked Gene in honest confusion.

"I agreed to act as your bodyguard while we're on the island and teach him the more obscure techniques of Qigong that only a true master would know," said Fon pleasantly. "The poor man needed a break, and even he knew it."

It had become far easier since Mai came in the twin's lives, but dealing with Naru was a complete headache at times. That...and Fon agreed to take blackmail photos for Lin, Madoka _and_ the Davis of Naru's reaction to Mai in a rather skimpy swimsuit and acting like a proper teenager for once.

And yes, none of them were _ever_ going to let him live it down that he was finally acting normal because of a cute girl when he finally had kids of his own.

Fuuta, I-Pin, and Lambo were being watched by Chrome, who was sticking close to Mukuro, Ken and Chikusa.

"Mai, go sign us in," said Reborn imperiously.

Mai stopped what she was doing and looked at him.

"Really? Do I look that stupid to you Reborn?" asked Mai.

Everyone looked at her.

"What's wrong?" asked Reborn innocently.

"I can sense the impending chaos and future headache from here. It's the same feeling I get every time Ken goes too close to the microwave with any food in his hand."

Ken grumbled about how the microwave was "an overly complicated piece of crap anyway" but kept it to a low whine.

"Fine, you can take your boy toys with you."

"Which one?" countered Mai. "Because I highly doubt Mukuro, Hayato, Chikusa, or Kyouya appreciate being labeled as my boy toys."

Reborn face palmed while Fon snickered outright.

"I believe at this point Hayato would more appropriately be labeled your pet dog," said Reborn.

"No, that's Ken," said Mai without hesitation.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, our pet wolf," she amended. Mukuro didn't bother to hide his amusement at that one.

"Just take the cloud brat with you to sign in!" said Reborn exasperated.

Were all teenage girls this difficult?

"Kyouya, if they try anything feel free to bite any fake carnivores to death...or at the very least give them one nasty hospital bill," said Mai.

"Wao. You say the nicest things, hime," said Kyouya amused.

"I still don't get why you've apparently upgraded me from herbivore to 'princess'."

"Blame the small carnivore," said Kyouya as they were heading to the sign-in desk. "He promised me proper fights if I agreed to act as one of your pack...and not with the other carnivores either. An actual fight against him."

Mai blinked, before she chuckled. If there was one thing that irritated Kyouya, it was that Fon never took him seriously in a proper fight.

Like a master humoring a small child just learning how to fight.

Which was ironic considering Fon looked like a two-year old and Kyouya looked like he was always ten seconds away from biting someone to death, literally.

Mai was completely unimpressed with the balloons, much less the reception. Having to prove she was a mafioso was just plain stupid.

She dragged Kyouya in with her, before giving the man in the cheap suit a flat look that brokered no arguments.

"See this cash? Take it and do not annoy me. Otherwise my _friend_ here will become very irritable and cause a lot of damage that I will absolutely not be paying for because of your stupidity. And considering he's a Cloud, I'm sure he could make things very...interesting...for you and anyone stupid enough to come at him with intent to annoy me," she said in a flat tone that spoke volumes of what a bad idea it was to get on her bad side.

The obvious mafioso took _one_ look at Kyouya's cold smirk, complete with teeth, before he looked at Mai and took the briefcase.

Mai smiled at him and he flinched at it.

When they left the room to find the Davis twins waiting, Mai smirked.

Kyouya looked rather pleased with the whole thing. Mai had clearly demonstrated her status as carnivore without having to do more than reveal her fangs at the weaker fake carnivore and smile. She was also adept at handling the lower carnivores for him, leaving him to deal with the more interesting ones that would inevitably come after her.

He didn't regret taking the small carnivore's suggestion to act as her Guardian one bit. Not if she continued to prove this interesting.

The little kitten he had helped save from the false den had left and grown up to become a proper tiger.

Of course it wasn't a full hour later when Mai was introduced to the reason...or rather the person...that Reborn had set up the entire scenario for.

He wasn't expecting her no-nonsense "mothering" side to scare the hell out of an experienced mafioso with nothing more than a look and the implied threat of unleashing a very violent Cloud on whoever annoyed her.

"Oi! Who the hell broke the testing idiot, kora?" demanded yet another fake baby, this time with blue pacifier and a very large sniper rifle.

Mai had to ask, if only because seeing that thing on his back begged the question.

"Where on earth would you find a sniper rifle that small, and why?"

Reborn and the mystery "baby" looked at her for a moment.

"Who's this, kora?"

"New student. She's the one who broke the idiot used to test the noobs," said Reborn flatly.

"Not my fault he can't handle Kyouya in a good mood with permission to go on a rampage if they annoyed me," said Mai.

The newcomer gave her an odd look.

"I had to have it customized otherwise I wouldn't be able to properly fire the trigger. As for why I bothered... I like guns."

Mai eyed the blond before she stated...

"Considering the outfit you're either a total military otaku or ex-military," she said flatly.

"Former COMSUBIN member... think the Italian version of the American Navy Seals," said Reborn.

"The name's Colonello, kora!" said the cheerful blond.

Mai looked at him hard, before a slow grin formed on her face.

After living with Fon and seeing how happy he was sharing his actual experience as a Taoist and martial arts grand master instead of what it was like to be cursed or what the mafia was like to him, she knew how to deal with the Arcobaleno and get on their good side.

Even Reborn fell prey to it, sharing tips and advice to the boys about how to get girlfriends and maintain weapons or create effective disguises. She caught Hayato taking notes a few times, and you could see Reborn relaxing.

"So Colonello, what's it like in the Italian military?" asked Mai.

A slow grin formed on Colonello's face. You could literally see his eyes shine brightly on the subject and it didn't take much coaxing for him to talk about his almost-girlfriend Lal Mirch.

Reborn watched as his current student properly relaxed in far too long.

Mai had more or less taken over the "responsible adult/mother" role for a lot of kids...some of them were technically older than she was, but heavily abused and traumatized. As such she tended to have a lot of weight on her small shoulders...though at least she had a support system in the forms of her team.

She had jokingly claimed that "Monk" was like the father figure, Ayako was the secondary "mom/older sister/trusted doctor" figure (which had her squawk in annoyance because she wasn't that old, according to her), John was the trusty "older brother/cousin", and Lin was the grumpy Uncle that preferred not to get involved unless he absolutely had to.

Masako had firmly been placed in the "sister" category.

Yasuhara had snickered pretty good when he heard how Mai tended to view them, and noticed that no one of them actually denied it that much considering Mai was the beating heart of SPR.

When she was happy, the rest of them were calm and able to handle things. When she was hurt, they put her first without thinking. When she was pissed off... well, they tended to stay the hell out of her way of whoever or whatever caused it unless they could help end her rage.

Seeing Colonello caught up in a giant hug because he was next to the kids was hilarious.

Even he was falling prey to Mai's magnetic personality.

For a Sky, Mai was abnormally accepting. Not just anyone could harmonize with an Arcobaleno, much less Fon.

He had a suspicion as to how she could hold two different sets of Guardians. His eyes rested on the twins, who were watching with varying degrees of amusement.

Between the two they held six of the seven flames that made up the Sky in equal quantities. It was possible that by harmonizing with Mai, they were amplifying her own Sky Flame to the point it could handle far more Guardian bonds than should be possible.

Verde wasn't the only one who had a fascination with unusual Flames. Reborn was a bit of a specialist himself, namely in the art of bringing said flames out without doing major damage.

He'd likely get along famously with Naru...or rather Oliver Davis. Once he got over the "ridiculousness" of paranormal research and found out they backed their work with hard scientific fact.

Reborn had gone over some of their cases and found that it was all backed up with hard evidence based on real science. Even if he did confiscate the video of Mai's Flame taking physical form from that one case. It was too dangerous to leave something like that lying around, if one knew what they were looking at.

It was a fascinating read, to say the least.

Of course it wasn't nearly as entertaining as Mai's reaction to Skull.

* * *

Mai took one look at the tiny Cloud and immediately thought of Lambo. Without a second thought she stalked up to the suddenly freaked out Cloud Arcobaleno with the look a mother would give a disapproving child.

"Skull, do you actually want to invade Mafia Land so often or are you just going through the motions to keep your familigia off your back?"

"I don't like doing it! I always end up beaten up by that jerk Colonello or sometimes even Reborn-sempai!" whined Skull.

"Which familigia are you with again?" asked Mai.

"Calcassa. I think the only reason they keep me on is because of this dumb pacifier."

"Do you have their direct number?" she asked flatly.

Skull looked it up on his phone before handing it over to her.

"Mai, what are you up to?" asked Reborn suspiciously.

"I'm going to buy out Skull's contract," she said bluntly. "And sell a few of the stocks I don't really need anymore to handle the increase in my food bill."

"Stocks? What stocks?" said Reborn in surprise.

"I play the stock market out of boredom and sell a few useless ones. You didn't really think I was keeping everyone feed and clothed from what Naru pays me, did you?" said Mai as if it were obvious.

To the stunned disbelief of everyone watching, Mai negotiated what seemed like an unfair deal to free Skull from his contract. Those familiar with the stock market knew she was handing over a lot of potential money. Worse, she was getting rid of the ones she had left over and putting the money directly into her account, rather than sit on them!

It wouldn't be until a week and a half later when Reborn was looking at the stock market prices online to see exactly how well off his student was that he discovered an interesting tidbit.

The price of the company stock Mai basically traded for the Lackey's contract had dropped so low that it wasn't likely to be worth much in the near future. The company had been caught lying on their product information and ability to deliver, which caused their investors to back out, thus losing even more money.

It was a sinking ship that was beginning to suffer a major collapse and possible foreclosure.

Mai had sold her stocks at the perfect time, earning her a lot of money to keep the home running, and in one fell swoop gave the Calcassa a nasty blow.

It wasn't like anyone would have seen this coming unless they had insider information.

Reborn wondered if this was the famous Vongola Hyper Intuition being put to good use in a way that couldn't be traced.

All he knew was that Skull had become a semi-permanent addition to the house, though at most he drifted around on his ridiculous blimp and came to visit often. He was definitely happy with his new arrangement, since the only thing Mai asked for was that he bring new things to share from the countries he tended to visit. She liked getting new cookbooks.


	20. Chapter 20

Mai looked at the notice in her hand with disbelief.

"What."

"We want you out of the neighborhood. You were a good neighbor for the first few years... but we draw the line at the fact you've turned your home into a boarding house for undesirables. There have been numerous noise complaints to say nothing of the...people... you've allowed to live in the house," said the nosy wife of the man who lived two houses down.

"You mean to tell me that the neighborhood association is trying to evict me for giving people a place to live? I follow all the requirements the board sets and I've never caused trouble! This is beyond ridiculous!" said Mai irate.

She had known the cops were coming by a few times, but had assumed it was to do with the kids and to make sure that they were being cared for.

"The neighborhood has gone downhill since you started adding more people to the house," said the woman flatly. Mai glared at her, and she took a few steps back. "You're not getting out of this. We want you gone by next month."

Oh she was pissed now, and already calling her lawyer the second the harpy left.

"Want me to deal with her?"

"She's just one part of the problem. If they have enough people backing this petition then where are we supposed to go to? There's no way we could rent apartments and not have to deal with the same nonsense sooner or later!" said Mai frustrated.

"Ciaossu. What's the problem?" asked Reborn, having sensed Mai being rather irate about something.

"The neighborhood association is trying to evict us. They claimed there's been noise complaints and the block has 'gone downhill' because I've opened up my house to people they don't approve of. We have a month," said Mai darkly.

"You could fight this, likely pissing off the neighbors in the process and fail to do anything. You could buy a new house in another area, forcing you to possibly change schools... or you could do something different. But it will cost you," said Reborn. He looked too smug to not have an idea already in mind.

"What are you planning?"

"If you can buy the building the office belongs to, I can put in an order to add a base and an underground area for you to live in. But it would mean having to actually pay attention to my lessons on the mafia and meeting with an old student of mine. After all, it wouldn't do for the heir to be homeless because of some nosy civilians," said Reborn amused.

"So basically I could try and go house hunting, and deal with that headache, or deal with the migraine that is your teaching method and playing nice with your previous student," said Mai flatly. She looked at the papers, then at the rather large number of people in her house. "What exactly are we talking about in terms of space when it comes to an underground bunker and a base, and who is your previous student?"

Reborn smirked. Mai was a very sensible person and trying to find a new home in a month in an area like Tokyo was beyond ridiculous. It was easier to humor Reborn and be close to work than it was to try and house hunt.

"You've already met him. He came to buy rankings from Fuuta... it's how I found you because he recognized the one picture Nana had on her wall that had you and Tatsuya in it."

"Wait... you mean the klutz who made that weird comment about my Flames? That guy?" said Mai in surprise.

"His name is Dino."

* * *

Naru came to the office...and blinked at the construction work. He wasn't aware that there was anything scheduled. He looked to Lin and Gene, who were equally confused.

"Oh, hey Naru! Gene!"

"Mai? What's going on with the office?"

Mai looked sheepish about something.

"It's rather confusing...and long...to explain, but our main office and side area won't be effected too much outside of an upgraded kitchen," said Mai quickly.

Naru looked at Mai hard.

"What happened?"

"Long story short, her idiot neighbors took offense to the fact Mai has allowed 'too many people' to live in her house, never mind that she has a working system and Mukuro keeps most of the chaos from spreading past the front yard," said Fon. "They're attempting to evict her and the others by the end of the month if she doesn't leave voluntarily."

Gene winced at that.

"What does this have to do with the construction?" asked Lin seriously.

"The Vongola have a very long reach, so Reborn contacted them and they bought out the building. They're making a few changes so Mai and the others won't be too uprooted by this mess and so their heir doesn't go homeless because a few idiots don't like her," said Fon flatly.

"It should be finished by the end of the week. If there's one thing they know how to do, it's work fast," said Reborn pleased. In exchange for doing this, Timoteo had given Mai an "allowance" of sorts for her to play with. He had heard good things of her ability to manage money from Reborn, and the fact she seemed to have a knack for making a lot of it legally.

This was mostly to see what she could do with the Vongola accounts if they set her loose on it without restrictions. Fixing up a base for her to live in was mostly an apology for not noticing the issue with her brother and mother before it got so out of hand.

Tatsuya was _still_ pissed that his sister was now the heir and that his special gift had been firmly sealed off.

So in an effort to change the subject from the construction, Naru decided to ask something that had been bothering him for some time.

"Why did your brother go so far as to erase your mother's memories?"

Reborn looked like he wanted to roll his eyes.

Mai sighed.

"To put it simply, it was really bad timing combined with a teenage rebellious phase that got out of hand very quickly because he was a Mist Flame."

Even Lin was looking at her now with confusion.

"I was always arguing with my mother over the fact that I believed my father to be dead and we exchanged words often loud enough for him to hear them. I told her a few times that I hated her... the same teenage melodrama most kids go through at some point when they start to feel confined by their parents rules or regulations... except Tatsuya was so stressed over it all that he awakened his Flames. Unfortunately he was a Mist and once he started to figure out how to use his ability... well, he decided that he was going to get us to stop arguing one way or another. I was the one who started _most_ of the fights with our mother, so he cut me out of the family," said Mai tiredly.

Gene and Naru both winced. They could see how badly things would have gotten if Mai had stayed... no wonder she had accepted the help of Kyouya in leaving her old life behind.

"So where are you staying while this is happening?" asked Gene.

"The neighbors were being extra snide about all this, so we're stripping the house down so it's completely empty. Everyone is pretty much staying at one of the hotels in the area until the construction is done and we can get some extra furniture. At least now everyone can have their own bedroom if they want, and there's going to be extra bathrooms..." said Mai.

It was clear she was _thrilled_ about that part. There was only ONE bathroom in her home and it was always being used every night. It was something of a scheduling nightmare so everyone could stay clean or relax. And forget about having a private moment to yourself.

"What about the house?" asked Gene sitting down.

"They're only kicking us out of the neighborhood for a stupid reason. They can't force me to sell my home and I can't wait to see the look on their face when I use that as a guest house later," said Mai vindictively. "If they really annoy me then I'm giving Kyouya permission to take it over and bite any of the idiots who get on his nerves."

He had taken over a minor yakuza base, but he had to keep clearing out the idiots who tried to take it back or the cops that thought he was a new Yakuza who took over the area. Giving him the house and letting him bring in his own things was something that would appeal to him greatly. The fact Mai could care less if he went after the annoying herbivores who herding together to chase her and her pack out was a major bonus.

Naru shared a look with Gene. Renting the condo was getting expensive, and Mai's house had plenty of room for a few people. Plus it was a decent distance from the office, compared to the condo. It was in a very good area.

Well... Naru got along rather well with Kyouya, and Kyouya didn't seem to mind being around Naru, Gene and Lin overly much. The fact Gene was used to people who were as cranky as Naru without his morning tea helped.

"Hey Mai... how do you think those idiot neighbors of yours would react to Kyouya _and_ Naru in the morning?"

Mai blinked, before she snorted and tried very hard not to laugh. Naru in the morning was like a bear... a very angry bear who wouldn't hesitate to rip someone to shreds with just his words. He knew how to hit people and was shameless about doing it to random bystanders who got on his nerves. Add into that Kyouya's disdain of "annoying herbivores crowding together"... Mai had a sudden evil thought.

"Uh Noll? I think we just sparked Mai's passive-aggressive trolling..." said Gene nervously.

Naru blinked and looked at their girlfriend. There was an evil aura about her, one that said she was going to do something that looked like it was harmless at first but was going to leave a lot of people cringing for months, if not years to come.

"What are you planning?"

"Nothing. Just imagining drafting an agreement that means they can't kick you out of the house once I leave..." said Mai evilly.

Those old hags would take one look at the "eye candy" that was Naru, Gene, Lin and Kyouya and wouldn't hesitate to welcome them to the neighborhood. And with Gene to divert the cops once Kyouya got pissy, there was no way they were going to like having those four around.

Gene was nice, Lin was indifferent... but Naru and Kyouya?

They were pure evil when it came to idiots bothering them.

Couldn't happen to "nicer" people.

* * *

 _One week later..._

On the surface there wasn't any real change to the office. The kitchen was slightly upgraded and there was a door that lead to the cafe area where they used to store extra equipment. It had a proper bathroom now and a couch that seemed to wrap around the room.

However downstairs was a different story. There was a proper reception area for people to come in and have their case heard out. Chrome was acting as the receptionist/diversion, with Mukuro usually sitting in one of the chairs with a magazine or book to read. He would train her in how to use her Mist flames on top of acting as her bodyguard. Between the two of them, they could divert any of the usual "thrill seekers" away before Naru had to listen to them prattle on. Anyone who seemed to have a genuine problem would be directed upstairs to Mai, who could use her inner "bullshit detector" and act as a buffer between Naru and their possible client.

It would cut down on a lot of the idiots Mai had to deal with, and give her more free time. Time she usually spent on homework, playing with her stocks (she did that at least once a week, unless her intuition flared up), or reading up on psychic research to make herself more useful in an investigation.

There was an elevator near the back that lead to the lower levels. That was where the biggest changes occurred. It was less of a garage now and more of an underground secret base.

There were multiple bedrooms, at least four bathrooms (Mai and the girls were thrilled) a garage (which currently had three vans, two of which were for SPR's personal use and made it easier to lug the equipment around) a theater room, several computers with an untraceable wireless connection, and of course a full armory.

That one Mai kept under firm lock and key. She _finally_ got Lambo to quit tossing around those damn grenades...she wasn't giving him ideas with actual GUNS until he quit throwing such major temper tantrums!

Reborn had pouted at that, until Mai agreed to learn how to use a gun properly from him. That seemed to cheer him up since it gave him a new way to tor...er, _train_ his student. There was even a shooting range in the base!

Not to mention a full infirmary, several escape routes (all the Guardians had their own private entrance) and a full kitchen that had Mai practically drooling at the idea of cooking in it.

Best of all there wasn't a neighborhood association to kick her out a second time... all the buildings around them were office buildings, most of which closed around nine or ten, SPR among them.

At most this meant that they could offer an "emergency consult" after business hours since a good number of the team now lived on-site.

It was all fairly impressive. But it was only secondary to the entertainment Mai got when she forced the neighborhood association to deal with her lawyer who lit into them for kicking her out illegally.

She had been planning to find a bigger house before, but being forced to move was not in those plans. They deserved the nightmare of dealing with a cranky Naru and Kyouya in the morning.

Ayako, Monk, John, Masako and Yasuhara all stared at the new "secret base" under the office.

"We were gone for a month. Exactly what did you do to get all this in place?" asked Ayako twitching.

"I made a deal with an annoying agent of chaos," said Mai. "That and the jerks who live in my neighborhood kicked us out because they didn't like the fact I had so many people living in my house."

Yasuhara heard more amusement than annoyance when she said that, and recognized the signs of Mai being a total troll to people who had it coming.

"What did you do to them in revenge?"

"Told Naru he could move into the house so long as they didn't mind sharing with Kyouya as well. Those idiots deserve having to deal with a cranky Naru and Kyouya in the mornings... and Kyouya doesn't bother to discriminate against the people he 'bites' to death when they annoy him. And I guarantee you those old hags will crowd him soon enough because he's total eye candy along with Naru."

Ayako stared, before she started laughing. She had immediately deemed Kyouya too much trouble to 'crowd' unless it was for health reasons. Pretty much the same way she dealt with Naru.

So for those old ladies to bother to two handsome teens before they were properly awake... they were going to be eaten alive by those two carnivores, with Gene cheering them on and Lin ignoring it all unless he had to step in.

"That is positively evil."

"They have it coming for kicking us out," said Mai vindictively. "Which reminds me..."

She pulled Ayako aside for a quick conversation that had the older woman nodding in emphatic agreement.

"Do we want to know?" asked Monk.

"Just some girl things. Trust me, Naru and Gene aren't going to know what hit them later," said Ayako smugly.


	21. Chapter 21

"I can't believe you actually _suggested_ this. It's so forward of you Mai!" said Ayako amused. Chrome was blushing at some of the things they were looking at.

"Well we agreed to take it slow, but that doesn't mean I can't tease the guys a _little_. Besides, I'm going to be staying at the house for the weekend just to annoy the old hags. By that point they would have found out the hard way about Naru and Kyouya's interesting personalities..." said Mai sweetly.

"You know I had honest doubts about Yasuhara and Mukuro's comments about your trolling habits. But you're quite the devious one when you want to be, aren't you Mai?" said Ayako amused.

Not that the old women didn't have _that_ coming. Mai was a nice girl and Mukuro kept the worst of it from bothering them. They had no right to kick her out like that.

"What do you mean, Ayako?" said Mai "innocently".

"Now I see why you and Yasu get along so well," said Ayako amused. "What exactly did you have in mind to cause the boy's brains to crash?"

Mai reached over to the racks and pulled out a shift.

"Something like this. I want it to be thin, but not see through. I usually wear a shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms to bed, so switching it up to something that shows a little more skin should suffice for now. Besides... my current set is almost in need of replacement."

"It is," agreed Chrome. Mai had a tendency to shop at second-hand stores, and she didn't really bother with clothes shopping. Mostly because she usually spent more on their food bill and rarely took time for herself.

Which was why Ayako was surprised Mai asked for her help shopping.

"Why not bring Masako with us?"

"She's still a Naru fan girl and I'm not about to drag her along with what I'm planning. Besides, can you really see her trying anything on in these stores and not being all shy about it? Even Chrome is better than her," said Mai flatly.

Ayako winced.

"Point. Wait... why bring Chrome with us?"

"She's starting to outgrow her current set, and she's semi-hoping to show it off to Mukuro at some point. I know she has a bit of a crush on him."

Chrome blushed but didn't deny that comment.

Mukuro wasn't helping matters with all the subtle flirting he did with her. So long as they didn't let it effect their professional life she was happy to ignore it.

"So Ayako, what do you think of this?"

Ayako grin.

"You'll send me the photos of their reaction to you in that, right?"

"Yup. I can't wait to see Naru's brain crash from too much stimulation."

Ayako chortled in agreement. This was going to be _fun_.

* * *

Mai took rather vindictive pleasure in visiting the house. Lin was going to be running a few errands and training with Fon for most of Sunday. And Kyouya... well he was going to be out and about biting anyone stupid enough to get his attention. He had been getting rusty from boredom in Namimori, so having fresh "hunting grounds" with an abundance of herbivores that didn't know their place was something he rather enjoyed.

So she was going to have most of the day off with her boyfriends, and would spend the night.

She was going to take advantage of the fact she was going to share the same bed as the boys to mess with them. The most they were going to do was cuddle though.

Naru was actually the more forward of the two when it came to physical affection. Gene was rather shy if it was anything more than a kiss on the cheek or a friendly hug. Which was somewhat ironic considering Gene was the more personable of the two.

Mai was humming to herself and enjoying the walk. She ignored her _former_ neighbors with ease and knocked twice before going in after she heard Gene.

Boy, were those old ladies upset when they found out Mai actually _owned_ the house and wasn't renting it like they thought. They legally had no grounds to kick her out, and now they were paying for it.

"Someone looks rather smug," said Lin when he saw her.

"I'll share the blackmail with you later."

"Do I want to know?"

"It's harmless, and not unless they haven't had the 'Talk' just yet."

Lin grimaced. He didn't need much more of a hint than _that_. He knew full well that the trio was "moving slow" for now, meaning that anything they planned to do would involve most of their clothes on and nothing outside of cuddling at the most.

The Davis were rather relieved to hear that, since while Luella _did_ want grandchildren there was no point in having them this soon. They would rather that Mai and their sons enjoyed the whole 'dating' phase while they could.

Besides... Lin was providing enough blackmail to last them for _years_. Considering the sort of person Oliver was, they were enjoying this for as long as they could. The boy was entirely too serious for his own good.

 _Later that night..._

"..."

Naru and Gene both made a rather odd sound when they saw Mai's new "nightgown". They hadn't thought twice about letting her share the room, since they weren't really inclined to get up to anything. That and they both had something of a secret addiction with holding her close.

However seeing Mai in a thin shift with a hint of her underwear showing was _not_ something they expected. Both of their brains went "blue screen of death" more than long enough for an impish Mai to take multiple pictures and save them to her online storage. And share them with Lin and Ayako... she could already hear the older woman cackling at their expressions.

Neither of them resisted when she pulled them close to the bed, though Naru recovered first. He hugged her from the front, his brain already overheating from this new stimulus while a blushing Gene laid on the opposite side. He was a little better than Noll, though he was still red in the face.

Mai was too busy trying not to laugh at their expressions to do anything else.

That was _hilarious_.

* * *

 _The next morning..._

Mai's little prank backfired on her the next morning. She found herself sandwiched between the two and neither of them were inclined to move. And thanks to how thin the outfit was she could feel their reactions far more clearly than before.

It was somewhat gratifying knowing she could affect them like that...and a bit embarrassing. Rather than getting up she snuggled closer to Naru and Gene.

It wasn't until she saw the time that she started to have a minor freak out.

She was going to be so late for first period!

 _At school, near lunch..._

"So Mai, why were you missing for all of first period this morning?" asked her friend.

She blushed horribly. Naru and Gene had shared a look and started teasing her the second they realized why she was panicking, making her almost late for her second class. Thankfully the first period had been self-study.

Well, turnabout was fair play and she could tell the twins were loosening up in their shared endeavor to make her blush like a tomato as payback for her minor prank.

"Oh now I have to know what happened to make you blush like that!" said another girl.

"I was wearing something to tease my boyfriend with when I spent the night over at his house, and he decided to get back at me by making all these comments about why I should just skip school today as payback," said Mai.

"You mean that total hottie Naru?" grinned the first girl.

"Wait, you spent the night at his house? What about his guardian?"

"Lin's not his guardian. He's his bodyguard/assistant, and he was out doing something else since he knew we weren't leaving the house for the rest of the night. So long as we don't get up to anything too bad he's content to let us have some alone time," said Mai.

"Lucky!"

"That and I promised him blackmail of Naru's face when he saw me in that negligee and little else. Naru totally went brain fried when he saw me in that!" laughed Mai.

"Share!"

Mai snickered and showed Naru (without Gene...she still hadn't mentioned Naru had an identical twin brother) when he saw her new sleepwear.

"Oh god... his face!" laughed her friends.

"He's totally loving the outfit!"

"He's a cuddle monster to boot," added Mai grinning.

They had to cut girl talk short for the rest of the afternoon, but the common consensus was that Mai was a very sneaky and lucky girl for snagging Naru like that.

* * *

Ayako was hugging Mai, while cackling at the pictures.

"That was hysterical. Did they really start flirting with you the next morning?"

"They tag teamed against me as payback," said Mai with a fake pout. Then she grinned. "Though they definitely liked the surprise, once they got over their shock."

"Wonder how they would react to the rest of the things you bought. Compared to them, that thing was pretty _tame_. And the less said about Chrome's picks the better!" snickered Ayako.

Naru, who had been passing by at the time took one look at the girl talk and what they were discussing before he actually went completely red in the face and walked away. Though it was more of a light jog.

Ayako saw it all and started howling with amusement.

Monk patted Naru and Gene on the shoulders with sympathy.

"I can't believe Mai sprung that surprise on you like that."

John was blushing too hard to comment. Though Yasuhara was snickering.

Gene grinned.

"We got her back though. We kept making comments about her skipping school for the day to stick around and tag teamed against her. She was as red as a tomato by the time she managed to leave."

Monk laughed.

"You didn't hear what they were talking about when I went in there to grab one of the snacks in the fridge," said Naru shuddering. "Apparently what we saw was tame compared to some of the _other_ things Mai bought, from what Ayako said."

Monk snorted.

"Look at the bright side. At least you know she likes you two enough to buy things like that and show them off to get a rise out of you," said Monk. "And you at least have some male influences to counter their girl talk."

Naru shuddered at the thought of being swamped by mostly females. It had been bad enough in England when he had to play nice. Here he didn't have to put up with nearly as much nonsense.

"Yeah, the ratio of our team isn't completely skewed to one side or another. I mean Ayako, Chrome and Masako are all feminine enough to counter any of us, especially Mai. And that's not getting into skill level or abilities. They're able to balance us out without creating too big of a divide, which is pretty rare," said Gene.

"Good point."

Naru blinked. Exactly how did he end up having this weird discussion with them?

Gene noticed his look and snorted.

"Welcome to normal human interaction, Noll. This is what happens when you actually spend time outside of your labs long enough to actually _connect_ with people and establish bonds," said Gene amused.

Naru did not look pleased.

"Oh no you don't. You do not get to go all Cloudy on us now that you're finally making progress from that shell you've built around yourself!" said Gene, pinching his brother's cheek.

"And you've taken to that terminology with far too much glee," said Naru with annoyance.

"If the shoe fits..." grinned Gene.

"You know you could get Mai back for her stunt," said Reborn smirking.

"I'm listening," said Naru. If Mai was going to start pulling stunts like this, then they would need all they help they could get to keep the playing ground level.

Lin certainly wasn't going to get involved, and Naru wasn't about to ask his parents or Madoka.

Monk, John and Yasuhara listened in to what Reborn was telling Naru and Gene to do in order to properly retaliate against Mai for her prank.

"I don't know whether to be impressed or worried," said Monk.

"Worried?" said Yasu.

"If this keeps up then Mai's chastity is toast," said Monk seriously, getting the other two males to blush.

"I thought they said they were going slow?" said John, changing the subject.

"Teenage hormones," said Monk shaking his head. "Though with Naru's control and the fact Gene's actually shy around girls he likes, I'd bet at _least_ six months before they actually move to the next stage. Right now they seem to be figuring out what triggers to push."

"Mai truly is a remarkable person... to be able to handle so many personalities that most wouldn't be able to stand, especially when they conflict with each other," said Yasu.

"Yes, well that tends to happen when said person is a Sky. It's only natural for those people to collect others around them and provide a balance to their souls," said Fon calmly.

"Sky?" said Yasu.

"How to put it in a way that won't have Reborn after me later... You know those naturally charismatic people you can't help but look towards for advice without knowing why? The sort who draw in all sorts of people, both for good and bad reasons, that are natural leaders?" said Fon.

"Like Jeanne of Arc or Alexander the Great?" asked John.

"Exactly. People like that are often referred to as 'Skies', because they have a sort of natural charisma that the majority of humanity lack. The type of person who is a natural leader or 'focus' of a group. It means they have the ability to draw in others of like minds and hold them together like glue. At the same time being around them is something akin to 'spiritual glue'... they can hold the group together because they naturally act as a buffer between the various personalities," said Fon.

"And you're saying that Mai, not Naru is the 'leader' of our group?" said Monk.

"Mai defers to Naru more because she is well aware that she is not as experienced when it comes to her own powers and the subject matter. However when it comes to keeping everyone's spirit up and getting them to act as a unit, who is the first person that comes to mind to make the real decisions?"

"Mai," said Monk. Then he blinked and saw what Fon was saying. "Wait..."

"Naru might be the drifting cloud that provides experience, knowledge and a 'shield' for everyone to hide behind when things get dicey... but in a crisis Mai is the one who is the type to take charge and get everyone to work together best," said Fon simply. "To put it bluntly she is the 'heart' of the team."

Monk thought that one over and conceded his point.

When it came to soothing tempers and getting the likes of Masako or Mukuro to behave and work as a team, Mai was usually the first person to jump in and convince them it was in their best interest. Like when she got Masako to vent outside that creepy mansion, rather than risk going inside and wandering off for Urado to capture her.

"Actually you should consider yourselves quite fortunate. There are several people like Mai in Italy and most wouldn't dare consider living in a city like Tokyo. Most of them are safely hidden behind mansion walls with far too many bodyguards and have a self-entitled attitude because of their natural charisma," continued Fon. "Mai's much more down to earth and it's rather refreshing to be around. Most of the 'skies' I've met were very arrogant and seemed to think they could do whatever they pleased because they knew they had this special charisma."

"I completely agree. Her attitude is a nice change of pace compared to the brats that seem to think they can throw around their spiritual energies to ensnare people like us. She's actually the first one I've meet in _years_ who hasn't tried to force a bond on either of us," said Reborn, having finished the planning session with the twins.

He was having a _lot_ of fun with this.


End file.
